The High Caste Hindu Woman

THE

HIGH -CASTE HINDU WOMAN,

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PUNDITA RAMABAI vSARASVATL

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I: :^Srf^S According to Act of Congress, in tfce year 1887, by

RAMABAI DONORS MEDHAVI,
in the Office of the librarian of Congress AU rights reserved.

Press ot The Jas. B. Roclgers Printing Co.

TO
MEMORY Off MY BELOVED MOTHER,

LAKSHMIBAI DONGR3,
WHOSE SWEET INFLUENCE AND ABWffi

LIGHT AND GUIDE OF MY

THIS UTTU-C VOLUME
IS MOST KEVRNTI,Y DEDICATED.

ftt

ANANDIBAI JOSHEE, M. D.

DAUGHTER OF GANPATRAO AMRITASWAR

AND

OUNGABAI

Boni in Poona, Bombay Presidency, India, March 3ist,
1865. (Child-name, Yamuna Joshee.)

Married Gopalrao Vinoyak Joshce, March 3ist, 1874.
(Wife-name, Anandibai Joshee,)

Sailed from Calcutta, India, for America, April 7th, 1883*
being the first high-caste Brahman woman to come to the
United States, Landed in tfew York, June 4th, 1883.

Graduated in medicine, from the Woman's Medical
College of Pennsylvania, March nth, 1886, being the first
Hindu woman to receive the Degree of Doctor of Medi*"
cine in any country.

Appointed, June 1st, 1886, to the position of Physician-
xn*Charge of the Fetnale Ward of the Albert Edward Hos-
pital, in th$ City of Kolhapur, India,

Sailed from New York, to assume her duties in Kolha-
put, October 9th t 1886.

Died in Poona, India; February ?6th, 1887.

INTRODUCTION.

THE silence of a thousand years has been broken,
and the reader of this unpretending little volume
catches the first utterances of the unfamiliar voice
Throbbing with woe, they are revealed in the fol-
lowing pages to intelligent, educated, happy Ameri-
can women.

God grant that these women, whom He has blessed
above all women upon the earth, may not flippantly
turn away, as they are wont to do from some over-
pious tale, and without reading, condemn ! To begin
this story of The High-caste Hindu Woman t and not
to read it through attentively to the last word of the
agonized appeal, is to invoke upon oneself the divine
displeasure meted out to those who disregard the
cry of "him that had none to help him." These
lines are written with deep emotion ; the blinding
tears which fall upon the page are the saddest tears
my eyes have ever wept.

From childhood I had been familiar with the state-
ments cottcernmg the condition of the native women

of ladiju My sympathies had always been with

*

ii Introduction.

them, and my annual offering to the treasury of mis-
sionary societies which worked among them, had
never been omitted; but in September, 1883, there
catne to my door a little lady in a blue cotton $aree^
accompanied by her faithful fnend, Mrs. B. F. Car-
penter, of Roselle, New Jersey, and since that hour,
when, speechless for very wonder, I bestowed a kiss
of welcome upon the stranger's cheek in lieu of
words, I have loved the women of India. The little
lady was Mrs. Anandibai Joshee. I^ess than three
months ago, the wealthy and conservative city of
Poona, India, which gave her birth, was stirred as
never before to honor a woman, and amid the pomp
of Brahmanical funeral rites performed by orthodox
Hindu priests, her funeral pile was lighted from the
sacred fire, in the presence of a great throng of sor-
rowing Hindus. She sealed with her early death the
superhuman effort to elevate her countrywomen and
to minister in her own person to their physical
needs.

To witness Dr. Joshee's graduation in medicine,
there came to Philadelphia from JBngland her kins-
woman, Pundita Ramabai Sarasvatl The two ladies
never met until they greeted each other under my
roof, March 6th, 1886 ; but, as kindred spirits, they
had corresponded for several years. Strangely enough,
each left India without the knowledge of the other,
and withm the same month, Mrs. Joshee sailing from
Calcutta and the Pundita from Bombay. The day
that Mrs. Joshee left Liverpool for New York, Rama-
bai and her little daughter landed m England, Th$
reception of the two ladies in the summer of 1883,
on^ in England and the other in the United States,
was most cordial ; and, comforted and blessed as nei-
ther had dared to anticipate before leaving India,
each settled down to work with industry and with

Introduction. iii

a degree of Intelligence which was a revelation to on-
lookers.

My own personal experience relates to her who fell
to our lot in the college in Philadelphia. She tried
faithfully, this little woman of eighteen, to prosecute
her studies, and at the same time to keep caste-rules
and cook her own food ; but the anthracite coal-stove
in her room was a constant vexation, and likewise a
source of danger; and the solitude of the individual
house-keeping was overwhelming. In her father's
hotise, the congregate system, referred to in this
book, prevailed ; and, being a man of means, the
family was always large. letter, when under her hus-
band's care, lie had been in the postal service, and
the dwelling apartments were in the same building
with the post-office ; hence she had never known
complete solitude. After a trial of two weeks, her
health declined to such an alarming extent that I
invited her to pay a short visit in ray home, and she
never left it again to dwell elsewhere in Philadelphia
during her student residence. In the performance o
college duties, going in and out, and up and down,
always in her measured, quiet, dignified, patient way,
she has filled every room, as well as the stairways
and halls, with memories which now hallow the
home, and must continue so to do throughout the
years to come, .

In the spring of 1884, Mrs. Joshee accepted an in-
vitation to address an audience of ladies convened for
a missionary anniversary, and she chose as her sub-
ject " Child Marriage/ 1 and surprised her great audi-
ence by defending the national custom. If there are
any who still cherish the feelings of disappointment
and regret engendered that April afternoon, let them
turn to Ramabai's chapter on Married I/ife in this
Wok, and learn how absolutely impossible it was for

iv Introduction.

a high-caste Hindu wife to speak otherwise, Let
them also discover, in the herculean attempt of that
occasion, a clue to the influences which at length
overpowered and slew this gentle, grave woman.

"I will go (to America) as a Hindu, and come
back and live among my people as a Hindu."
Brave, patriotic words ! a resolve which was carried
out to the death. Ramabai's chapter on Married
Life, the married life of a Hindu woman in the year
1887, no less than in past centuries, reveals to the
Western reader what it was for this refined, intellec-
tual woman, whose faculties developed rapidly under
Western opportunities, and whose scientific acquire-
ments placed her high in rank among her peers
in the college class, to accept again the position
awarded her by the Code of Manu (Manu ix, 22 ; see
page 40). That she did accept it, that "until death
she was patient of hardships, self-controlled, , . . and
strove to fulfill that most excellent duty which is
prescribed for wives, " is undoubted* vShe battled
hand to hand with every circumstance, resolved, as a
Hindu, to live and work for the uplifting of her
sisters, but all in vain 1

After years of exile, she found herself once more in
the familiar places of her childhood, surrounded by
her mother and maternal grandmother and sisters.
She had returned to them too late to admit of the ra*
storation of her appetite by the nourishing food their
skillful hands knew how to prepare j but in love they
watched beside her, and it was the dear mother*!* priv-
ilege to support the daughter in her arms when at
midnight the end came quickly, This occurred Fetm-
ary 26th, 1887, in the city of Poona, in the house iti
which she was born* Previous to the cremation of the
body, which took place the morning following her
death, her husband had a photograph taken of "mat-

Introduction. v

ter before it was transformed into vapor and ashes/*
The pathos of that lifeless form is indescribable. The
last of several pictures, taken during the brief public
career of the little reformer, it is the most eloquent of
them all. The mute lips, and the face, wan and wasted
and prematurely aged in the fierce battle with sorrow
and pain, alike convey to her American friends this
message, not to be forgotten: "I have done all that
I could do." Ah! who will thus early dare to say
that she has not accomplished more by her death
than she might have accomplished by a long life?
Herself and husband returned from a foreign land,
where they had dwelt with a strange people, ought,
by Hindu custom, to have been treated as outcasts,
and their shadows shunned. Instead, when it was
known that the distinguished young Hindu doctor
had reached her early home, old and young, ortho-
dox and non-orthodox, came to pay friendly visits
and to extend a cordial welcome.

Even the reformers were astounded when they be-
held the manner in which the travelers were treated
by the most orthodox families. The papers from day
to day chronicled the state of the invalid's health,
and when at length she passed away, several of the
journals of Poona printed in the vernacular, contained
under symbols of mourning, eulogistic notices of her
\ character and work. Ramabai has translated two of
\ these for me, and from them I make extracts :

"Dr. Anandibai Joshee has left us to abide in the
next world ; but the example she has set will not be
fruitless. It is indeed wonderful that a Brahman lady
has proved to the world that the great qualities ^per-
severance, unselfishness, undaunted courag^ and an
eager desire to serve one's country do exist in the
So-called, weaker sex We ought as a people to do
something that will remind us of her and l>ear wit-

vi Introduction.

ness forever to her wondrous virtues ; in our opinion,
this debt of gratitude to Anandibai cannot be better
discharged than by providing a lady, who will be
willing to study medicine, with all the pecuniary aid
necessary. Thus may the memory of the late dis-
tinguished lady be perpetuated."- Kesari, February
27, 1887.

" One of the great and grievous losses which our
unfortunate Hindustan incessantly sustains was wit-
nessed by Poona, we grieve to say, on Saturday last,
when Dr. Anandibai Joshee was summoned from this
world late in the midnight. She has been residing in
Foona for the last two months ; she came hither in
the hope that her native city, which has many re-
nowned physicians residing in it, might prove for her
a healthy place, and that the pleasant weather and
home influences would all contribute towards improv-
ing her health. The hopeful expectations of her
countrywomen, who had looked forward to the day
when they would be benefited by Dr Joshee's remark-
able ability and well-earned knowledge, are now wholly
dissipated,"

44 Although Anandibai was so young, her persever-
ance, undaunted courage and devotion to her husband
were unparalleled, we think it will be long before
we shall again see a woman like her in this country.
We do not hesitate to say that Dr. Joshee is worthy
of a hi^h place on the roll of historic women who
have striven to serve and to elevate their native land*
. . . The education that she had received had
greatly heightened her nature and ennobled her mind.
Although she suffered more than words can express
from her ^mortal disease, phthisis, not a word either
of complaint or impatience escaped her lips at any time*
After months of dreadful suffering she was reduced
to skin and bone, and every one that looked at her
could not but be greatly pained; yet, wonderful to
relate, Anandibai thought it her present duty to suffer
silently and cheerfully. . . . After the picture w*3
taken, her relatives bathed the body and decked it
with bright garments and ornaments, according to
Hindu custom. There was no time to spread the sad
news throughout the city, but as many as heard it

Introduction* vii

accompanied her remains to the cremation ground,
thus showing the respectful affection they felt for
her Some people had feared that the priests might
raise objections to cremating her body in the sacred
fire, according to the Hincm rites; out these fears
proved groundless. Not only on the occasion of her
cremation, but earlier during her lifetime, when her
husband offered sacrifices to the gods and the guard-
ian planets to avert their anger and her death, ^the
priests showed no sign of any prejudice against
them ; they gladly officiated in the religious sacrifices,
thus affording a remarkable proof of their advanced
views. After the body was placed upon the funeral
pile Mr. V. M. Ranade made an oration in Dr. Joshee's
honor, and the cremation was then completed without
hindrance." Dnyana Chakshu> March 2nd, 1887.

The general public interest in the person- and wort
of Dr. Joshee is a sufficient reason for presenting in
this introductory chapter the above details, which
have not elsewhere been given to her American
friends. Pundita Ramabai, her beloved and trusted
kinswoman, still lives to perform, not her identical
work, but to prosecute the general disenthrallment of
Hindu women, concerning the ultimate accomplish-
ment of which Dn Joshee cherished invincible faith.
Greatly bereaved, her fond hopes of a congenial sup-
porter and an efficient helper in India suddenly dashed
to the ground, Ramabai toils on with a heroic single-
ness of purpose. It is in the prosecution of this one
supreme object of helping her countrywomen to a
better and higher life that this little book has been
written. In her contact with American philanthro-
pists and educators, during the year of her sojourn
in the United States, Ramabai has found popular
ideas concerning the women of India erroneous, and
it is to correct these, and also to reveal fully their
needs, that the following chapters have been prepared.

She lias written in the belief that if the depths of

viii Introduction.

the thralldom in which the dwellers in Indian zena-
nas are held by cruel superstition and social customs
were only fathomed, the light and love in American
homes, which have so comforted her burdened heart,
might flow forth in an overwhelming tide to bless all
Indian women. The task of preparing The High-caste
Hindu Woman has not been for her a congenial one.
She is not by nature an iconoclast. She loves her
nation with a pure, strong love. But her love has
reached the height where it is akin to the motive of
the skillful surgeon : she dares to inflict pain because
she regards pain as affording the only sure means of
relief. She is satisfied, moreover, that India cannot
arise and take her place among the nations of the
<earth until she, too, has mothers ; until the Hindu
zenana is transformed into the Hindu home, where
the united family can have "pleasant times t<5-
.gether" (see p. 48).

The experiment of bringing the existing condition
<of high-caste Hidu women to the test of codes of
sacred law, it is believed, was never before attempted.
"The reader will bear in mind, as she cons the care-
ifully selected texts from the Code of Manu which
abound throughout the volume, that these are sen-
tences too sacred for feminine lips to utter, and that
tfew women in India have ever heard, them, much
"less "have beheld them with their own eyes. Even
Ananta Shastri, liberal as he was in his views con-
cerning the education of women, withheld the sacred
texts from his wife and daughters. The Sanskrit
literature accessible to them, consisted of poems not
associated with sacred rites and ceremonies. Rama*
bai never saw a copy of the Code of Manu until after
her scholastic attainments had been publicly recog-
nized in Calcutta.

She has exercised great care in securing correctness

Introduction. ix

in Her quotations, diligently comparing translations,
where more than one were available, and in some
cases making the translation herself from the original
Sanskrit. The general statements throughout the
book may be relied upon for their accuracy. Should
the volume reach India, these statements will undoubt-
edly be assailed as untruthful and sacrilegious, and
possibly there may be persons in the United States
who will strive to create this impression ; but Rama-
bai's desire to speak the truth is only equalled by
her determination to let in the full blaze of day upon
effete customs and perilous usages. She has withheld
nothing essential that her wide experience through-
out India has revealed to her. She does not print
this information for the purpose of reputation or of
gain, but because taught, as she believes, by the Di-
vine Spirit, that the revelation will stir the hearts of
those who read the story to deeds of rescue and relief.

There are readers who, upon the title-page of this
book, will see the Pundita's name for the first time,
and all such will naturally inquire, Who is she?
In view of the fact, that she seeks to assume grave
responsibilities before the American public this ques-
tion is legitimate, and therefore, at the risk of grow-
ing tedious, I will endeavor to make answer- It is
a weird beginning of a life-sketch to ask the in-
quirer to turn to page 37 and read of an occurrence,
in the early morning, on the banks of the sacred
river Godavari. The fine-looking man who came to
the river-side to bathe was the learned Ananta Shastri,
and the little girl of nine, whom he carried away the
day following as his child-bride, wa$ Ramabai's mo- ,
ther. Ttiis Brahman pundit, who "well and tenderly
cared for the little girl beyond all expectation/* was
a native of the Mangalore district in Western India.

x Introduction.

In his boyhood, when about ten years of age, he had
been married, and had brought his child-bride to his
mother's house and committed the little girl to her
keeping. He, however, was possessed with a desire
for the acquisition of knowledge, and attracted by the
fame of Ramachandra Shastri, a distinguished scholar,
who dwelt in Poona, he early made his way thither,
and sought his instruction. This eminent Brahman
had been employed by the reigning Peshwa to visit
his palace statedly, and give Sanskrit lessons to a fa-
vorite wife. The student Ananta was privileged to
accompany his teacher, and, thus going in and out
of the palace, he occasionally heard the lady reciting
Sanskrit poems.

The boy was filled with wonder that a woman
should be so learned, and as time wore on, astonish-
ment gave place to admiration of her learning, and
he resolved that he would teach his little wife just as
the Shastri taught the fair Rani of the palace. His
student-life ended at the age of twenty-three, and he
hastened to his native village to incorporate education
with his duties as a householder. But the bride had
no desire to be instructed ; his mother and all the elders
of the family demurred, and the husband was compelled
to desist. The married life went on, children were born
to the young couple, and at length the wife died.
The widower had not forgotten the Peshwa's palace
in Poona and the Sanskrit poems, and he resolved to
begin his next experiment early.

We learn from the printed page how he accepted
the little bride of nine.who was offered to him, and
carried her to his distant home ; there he delivered
her to his mother, and immediately began to teach
her Sanskrit. But the elders of tie household ob-
jected as before ; the little wife was too young to have ,
a voice in the matter, and the husband resolved that

Introduction. xi

the experiment of the girl's education should be
faithfully carried out. He therefore left the valley
and civilization below him, and journeyed upward
with his young wife to the forest of Gungamul, on
a remote plateau of the Western Ghauts, and literally
in the jungle, took up his abode. Ramabai relates
as a memory of her childhood her mother's recital of
how the first night was spent in the sylvan solitude,
without shelter of any kind. A great tiger came with
the darkness, and from across a ravine, made the
night hideous with its cries. The little bnde wrapped
herself up tight in her pasodi (cotton quilt) and lay
upon the ground convulsed with terror, while the
husband kept watch until daybreak, when the hungry
beast disappeared. The wild animals of the jungle
were all about them, and hourly terrified the lonely
little girl ; but the lessons went on without hindrance,
and day by day the wife, I/akshmibai, grew 'in stature
and in knowledge A rude dwelling was constructed,
and after a few years little children came to the home
in the forest, one son and two daughters. The father
devoted himself to the education of the son and elder
daughter, and also to that of young men who, as stu-
dents, sought out the now famous Brahman priest,
whose dwelling-place in the mountains, at the source
of one of the rivers, was regarded as sacred, and hence
a place of pilgrimage for the pious. When Rama-
bai, the youngest child, was born, in April, 1858, the
father was quite too much occupied to instruct her,
and, moreover, he was growing old. Upon her mother,
therefore, devolved the instruction in Sanskrit.

The resident ^students and the visiting pilgrims and
the aged father and mother-in-law, now members
of the ifatoily, as well as the children of the house-
hold, entailed many cares upon the educated Hindu
mother, and the only time that could be found for the

xn Introduction.

little daughter's lessons was in the morning 1 twilight,
before the toilsome day had dawned. Ramabai recalls
with emotion that early instruction while held in her
dear mother's arms. The little maiden, heavy with
sleep, was tenderly lifted from her bed upon the earth,
and wakened with many endearments and sweet
mother-words ; and then, while the birds about them
in the forest chirped their morning songs, the lessons
were repeated, no other book than the mother's lips
being used. It is these lessons of the early morning,
statedly renewed with each recurrent day, that con-
stitute the fountain-head of the " sweet influences and
able instruction" which, in the dedicatory page of this
book, the author characterizes as "the light and guide
of my life."

But this was a Hindu home, not an American home
where such kindly care and wise parental love would
have borne for the parents refreshing fruit in their old
age. The father, under the iron rule of custom, had
>< given his elder daughter in marriage when very young,
. and upon pages 62 and 63 we learn the nature of the
sorrows which overtook the family ; previous to this,
however, the popularity of the Shastri as a teacher,
and his sacred locality in the wilderness, had in-
volved him in debt ; for guests must be fed and duties
enjoined b^ religion performed, at whatever pecuniary
loss. The half of his landed property in his native
village, which was to be the portion of the son by the
second wife, was, with the son's consent, sold to dis-
charge the debts, and then the family, homeless, set
out upon pilgrimages, It is difficult for the "Western
reader, with whom the word home is inseparable from
family existence, to realize that this Hindu family
were thus employed seven years, Ramabai being nine
years of age when they set out.
But all the while as this Marathi priest and his wife

Introduction. xiii

and children wandered from one sacred locality to the
next, having no certain dwelling-place, the early morn-
ing lessons were continued, and Ramabai, developing
rare talent, became, under the instructions of father
and mother, " a prodigy of erudition. " Engrossed in
her studies, she was allowed to remain single until the
age of sixteen, when, within a month and a half of
each other, her parents died.

"From my earliest years," Ramabai states, "I al-
ways had a love of books. Though I was not formally
taught Marathi, yet hearing my father and mother
speak it and being in the habit of reading newspapers
and books in that language, I acquired a correct
knowledge of it. In this manner I acquired also the
knowledge of Kanarese, Hindustani and Bengali while
traveling about. My father and mother did not do
with me as others were in the habit of doing with their
daughters, z. /?., throw me into the well of ignorance
by giving me in marriage in my infancy. In this my
parents were both of one mind." When death invaded
the pilgrim household, the father, bowed with age and
now totally blind for several years, was taken first ; in
six weeks the mother followed. The poverty of the
family was extreme ; consequently, Brahmans could
not be secured to bear the remains to the burning-
ghat, which was three miles distant from the scene of
the mother's death. At length two Braimans were
found who took pity upon them, and with the assist-
ance of these men, the devoted son and daughter them-
selves carried the precious burden to the distant place
of cremation, Ramabai's low stature compelling the
bearing of her share of the burden upon her head.
Why do I recount this passage of nameless woe?
Why? Because we American women, in our own
homes, have never before looked into the face of one
Upon whom a ministry of sorrow so overwhelming as

xiv Introduction.

this lias been laid, and we need, in our prosperity,
to realize that God hath made of one blood all nations
of men. The lovely woman who writes this book in
the city of Philadelphia and the beloved mother to
whom she dedicates it were in the forest of Gungamul
and in the later, dusty paths of pilgrimage alike des-
titute of the true knowledge of God ; but, in their
great spiritual darkness, they ministered to and mu-
tually loved and cherished each other with that mater-
nal and filial affection which is the same the woild
over

After the death of the parents and the elder sister,
Ramabai and her brother continued to travel. They
visited many countnes on the great continent of India,
the Punjab, Rajputana, the Central Provinces, Assam,
Bengal and Madras, and, as pilgrims, were often in
want and distress. They spent their time in advo-
cating female education, i. e.< that before marriage
high-caste Hindu girls should be instructed in vSan-
sknt and in their vernacular, according to the ancient
Shastras,

When, in their journeying, they at length reached
Calcutta, the young Sanskrit scholar and lecturer cre-
ated a sensation by her advanced views and her
scholarship. She was summoned before the assembled
pundits of the capital city ; and as a result of their
examination the distinguished title of Sarasvati wa ,
publicly confeired upon her by them. Soon after, her
brother died. "His great thought during his brief
illness/' she writes, "was for me; what would be-
come of me left alone in the world? When he spoke
of his anxiety, I answered: 'There is no one but Goci
to care for you and me.' 'Ah/ he answered, 'then
if God cares for us, I am afraid of nothing/ And,
indeed, in my loneliness, it seemed as if God was car
me j I felt His presence." " After six months I mar-

Introduction. xv

tied a Bengali gentleman, Bipin Bihari Medhavi, M.A.,
B.I,., a Vakil and a graduate of the Calcutta Univer-
sity. But we neither of us believed either in Hin-
duism or Christianity, and so we were married with
the civil marriage rite. . . . After nineteen months
of happy married life, my dear husband died of cholera.
This great grief drew me nearer to God. I felt that He
was teaching me, and that if I was to come to Him,
He must Himself draw me. ' ' A few months before the
husband's death a little daughter was born in the
happy home a daughter greatly desired by both father
and mother before her birth, and hence, she found a
beautiful name awaiting her, Manorama (Heart's Joy],

The widow Ramabai now returned to her former oc-
cupation as a lecturer. It became her especial mission
to advocate the cause of Hindu women, according to
what she believed to be the true rendering of the an-
cient Shastras, in opposition to the degraded notions
of modern times. Her earnestness and enthusiasm
gained her many admirers, among whom was Dr. W.
W. Hunter, prominently connected with the British
educational interests of India. He thought her career
and the good she was doing so well worthy of admira-
tion that he made her the subject of a lecture delivered
in Edinburgh.

" When I spoke," says Dr. Hunter, "of a high-caste
Indian lady being thus employed, that great English
audience rose as one man and applauded the efforts
which the Pundita Ramabai was making on behalf of
her countrywomen/' Henceforth her name was well
known in England, as well as in India, to all who were
interested in the social amelioration of the people of
Hindustan.

With a view to improve the degraded condition of
her countrywomen, she formed in Poona a society of
ladies, known as the Arya Mahila Somaj, whose ob-

xvi Introduction.

ject was the promotion of education among native
women, and the discouragement of child-marriage.
She then went from city to city throughout the Bom-
bay Presidency, establishing branch societies and arous-
ing the people by her eloquent appeals. When the
English Education Commission visited Poona in Sep-
tember, 1882, for the purpose of inspecting the educa-
tional institutions of that city, the leading Brahman
ladies, members of the newly-formed society and others,
to the number of about three hundred, assembled with
their children in the Town Hall, to welcome the Com-
mission and to show them that, although the munici-
pality had not encouraged girls' schools, a genuine
movement was being inaugurated by the best families
of the Marathi country. Pundita Ramabai was the
orator of the occasion. *

Dr. Hunter, as President of the Education Commis-
sion, made Ramabai the prominent figure among the
many noteworthy persons who were examined before
him during that visit. He regarded her evidence as of
so much importance that he caused it to be translated
from, the Marathi and separately printed. A copy of
this India print is before me as I write. There are
three questions, viz. :

Question r State what opportunities you have had of forming an
opinion on the subject of Education in India, and in what province
your experience has been gained?

Here follows, in reply, a brief, but remarkably clear,
narrative of her parentage, her father's views/those of
her brother, also a statement in regard to her husband,
and the vicissitudes of her life; all of which, she
stated, had afforded her many opportunities of form-
ing an opinion on the subject of Female Education in
different provinces of India. She closes thus :

"I am the child of a man who had to suffer a great deal on account

Introduction. xvii

of advocating Female Education, and who was compelled to discuss
the subject, as well as to carry out his own views, amidst great oppo-
sition . . I consider it my duty, to the very end of my life, to
maintain this cause, and to advocate the proper position of women
in this land "

Question 2. What is the best method of providing teachers for girls ?

Answer 2 It appears to me evident that the women who are to be-
come teachers of others should have a special training for that work.
Besides having a correct knowledge of their own language, they ought
to acquire English Whether those training to be iemale teachers are
married or unmarried, or widows, they ought to be correct in their
conduct and morals, and they ought also to DC of respectable families.
They ought to be provided with good scholarships Teachers of girls
also ought to have higher salaries than those of boys, as they should be
of a superior character and position. f The students should live in the
college compound, so as to nave their manners* and habits improved,
and there ought to be a large building with every appliance for the
comfort of the teachers and students. They ought to have a native lady
of good position over them. Mere learning is not enough ; the conduct
and morals of the students should be attended to.

Question 3. What do you regard as the chief defects, other than any
' to which you have already referred, that experience has brought to light
in the. educational system as it has been hitherto administered? What
suggestions have you to make for the remedy of such delects ?

Answer 3. There ought to be female inspectresses over female
schools. These ought to, be of the age of thirty or upwards, and of a
very supenor class, and highly educated, whether Native or European.
Male inspectors are unsuitable for the following reasons (i) The wo-
men of this country are very timid If a male inspector goes into a
female school, all the women and girls are thrown into confusion, and
are unable to speak. The inspector seeing this state of things will
write a bad report of the school and teachers, and so in all probability
Government will appoint a male teacher for that school, and so the
school will not have the advantage of a female teacher. As the educa-
tion of girls is different from that of boys, female schools ought to be in
the hands of female teachers. (2) The second reason is this In ninety-
nine cases out of a hundred, the educated men of this country are op-
posed to Female Education and the proper position of woman. If they
observe the slightest fault, they magnify the gram of mustard-seed into
a mountain, and try to ruin the character ofa woman , often the poor
woman, not being very courageous, -and well informed, her character is
completely broken. Men being more able to reach the authorities are
believed; while women go to the wall, Both should be alike to a pa-
rental Government, whose children, male and female, should be .treated
with equal justice It is evident that women, being one-half of the
people of this country, are oppressed and cruelly treated by the other
al To. put a stop to this anomaly is worthy of a good Government*
Another augrcestion I wonld make> is with regard to lady-doctors.
Though in Hindustan there are numbers of gentleman-doctors, there
are no ladies of that profession. The women of this country are much
WOTS reserved than ifi other countries, and most of them would rather
die than *aeak of their ailments to a man. The want of lady^doctprs is,
tbw*&r7the catute of hundreds of thousands of women dying prema-
tu*e deaths, fwoisld, tfcesrttfore, earnestly entreat of our Government
to make rirovisioa for the study of medicine by women, and thus save
th* Jtafe of those maltltaide*. .Th* w*at of foo>docto** fr 'one very
mufcb felt and id a great defect in the Education of the women of this

'

xviii Introduction.

The answers to these questions are introduced in full,
as bearing- valuable and ample testimony to the char-
acter, and the position before the public, of Ramabai in
her own country. Upon the authority of the Time?
of India, it may be stated that her plea for women-phy-
sicians before the Commission, in September, 1882, (See
Answer 3), is believed to have attracted the attention
of her gracious Majesty, the Queen -Empress, and to
have been indirectly the origin of the movement in
Hindustan which, in its latest developments, has
reached the noble proportions of The National Associa-
tion for Supplying Female Medical Aid to the Women
of India, popularly known as the " Countess 1 of Dufferin
Movement," from its distinguished president, the wife
of the Viceroy of India.

Ramabai now realized that she herself needed per-
sonal training to enable her to prosecute with success
her work among the women of India in behalf of edu-
cation. Then, too, as she had in her experience be-
come conscious of God's guidance, her spirit was pos-
sessed of that unrest which is the solemn movement
of the soul God ward, seeking "the Lord if haply she
(they) might feel after Him and find Him " " I felt a
restless desire to go to England," she writes. " I could
not have done this unless I had felt that my faith in
God had become strong : it is such a great step for a
Hindu woman to cross the sea ; one cuts oneself al-
ways off from one's people. But the voice came to
me as to Abraham. ... It seems to me now very
strange how I could have started as I did with my
friend and little child throwing myself on God's pro*
tection. I went forth as Abraham, not knowing
whither I went. When I reached England, the Sis-
ters in St. Mary's Home at Wantage kindly received
me. There I gradually learned to feel the truth of
Christianity, and to see that it is a philosophy, teach*

Introduction. xix

ing truths higher than I had ever known in all our sys-
tems ; to see that it gives not only precepts, but a per-
fect example , that it does not give us precepts and art
example only, but assures us of divine grace, by which
we can follow that example. " True to her honest na*
ture, she acted promptly upon her convictions and em'
braced Christianity, and she and her little daughter
were baptized in the Church of England, September
29th, 1883. Henceforth she devoted herself to edu-
cational work. The first year was spent at Wantage
in the study of the English language, which hitherto
had been unknown to her. Acquiring this, she
entered, September, 1884, the Ladies' College at Chel-
tenham, where a position was assigned her as Pro-
fessor of Sanskrit. Her unoccupied time was spent as
a student of the college, in the study of mathematics,
natural science, and English literature. Her opportu-
nities at Cheltenham College were of the highest order,
and the influence of the noble Christian women with
whom she was associated, both there and at Wantage,
was most refined and salutary in its Character. She
made rapid progress in her studies, and a possible Gov-
ernment educational appointment in India loomed up
in the near future, when an invitation reached her to
witness Mrs. Joshee's graduation in medicine in Phila-
delphia, March nth, 1886

That "holy land called America" had long held at-
tractions for her, and these were now heightened by
the presence and work of her beloved kinswoman.
After some weeks of painful indecision, she decided to
accept the invitation, her sole reason for allowing her
studies to "be interrupted thus inopportunely being
her thorough conviction that it was her duty in the
interests of her countrywomen to visit America at
that time. In February, 1896, she again embarked
Upon an unknown sea, accompanied by her young

xx Introduction.

daughter, then nearly five years of age. Her residence
in America and her public service here have been
widely chronicled in the daily and weekly journals,
and are not therefore a matter of private record. In
the beginning, she expected to return to England after
a brief vacation, and there resume her studies ; but,
as the genius of American institutions was revealed
through personal inspection, her interest grew, and
she decided to prolong her stay. In midsummer she
wrote : " I am deeply impressed by and am interested
in the work of Western women, who seem to have one
common aim, namely, the good of their fellow-beings.
It is my dream some day to tell my countrywomen in
their own languages this wonderful story, in the hope
that the recital may awaken in their hearts a desire to
do likewise." As her contact with a public educational
system which included girls as well as boys was pro-
longed, her old desire to benefit her countrywomen by
founding schools which combined the training of the
hand with that of the head revived, and forsaking plans
which regarded only the higher education of the few
women in government high-schools or colleges in India,
she concentrated her thoughts upon native schools
founded by and for native women. Early in her resi-
dence in Philadelphia she met Miss Anna Hallowell,
prominently identified with the Sub-Primary School
Society (free kindergartens) of the city. This distin-
guished lady kindly accompanied her to several of
the kindergartens, and explained methods to her with
care, and also the principles upon which the system
was based. Ramabai's enthusiasm was aroused as
she saw in Froebel's teaching wondrous possibilities
for her little widows. Purchasing without delay the
most approved text-books and the " gifts," she set her-
self to work to translate into Indian thought the games
and tokens of the system, in order that she might

Introduction. xxi

adapt it to Hindu needs In September, 1886, she
promptly enrolled herself as a student in a kindergar-
ten training-school, and, as her public duties have per-
mitted, she has faithfully pursued the course of study
throughout the scholastic year just ending". Ameri-
can school-books were a revelation to her in the beauty
of their illustrations and of their letter-press and the
quality of the paper upon which they are printed. In
July, 1886, she set herself to work upon a series of
Marathi school-books for girls, modeled after the Amer-
ican idea, beginning with a primer and continuing
regularly up to a reader of the sixth grade. She was
enthusiastic as to results, designing to illustrate with
American wood-cuts, although the printing would ne-
cessarily be delayed until Bombay is reached, on ac-
count of the Marathi type required. The primer was
soon finished, and much of the material for the reading
books prepared, when a prudent investigation was in-
stituted as to the cost of illustrations, and the stern
fact revealed that the charming pictures were far too
expensive to be dreamed of for her books.

Thus the case stands June ist, 1887. Pundita Rama-
bai, the high-caste Brahman woman, the courageous
daughter of the forest, educated, refined, rejoicing in
the liberty of the Gospel, and yet by preference retain-
ing a Hindu's care as regards a vegetable diet, and
the peculiarities of the dress of Hindu widowhood,
sole'mnly consecrated to the work of developing self-
help among the women of India, has her school-books
nearly ready for^the printer, her plans for the organiza-
tion of a school, such as she describes on page 1 14,
well developed, and two teachers (Amerkfah Taffies,
one a graduated kindergartner) secured. Tickets for
herself and teachers might be taken for India at once,
and as a result of the strong reaction which the un-
timely death of Dr. Joshee has set up, Ramabai, outcast

xxii Introduction.

though, she is among her own people, might inaugurate,
under favorable auspices, her work among the child-
widows

But the money is wanting. In 1793, when William
Carey, the first English missionary to Asia, was about
to set sail for India, he said to those about him, " I will
go down into the deep mine, but remember that you
must hold the ropes " As I close this chapter, the
longing fills my soul that among the favored women
of this Christian land there might be found a sufficient
number to hold the ropes for Ramabai, making it pos-
sible for her to go out quickly to her God-inspired work
1 It must not be a fitful benefaction of a few hundred or
even of a few thousand dollars, but a steady holding on
to the ropes, for a period of not less than ten years.
They must not be let go while she in the throes of a
death-struggle with superstition and caste prejudice,
and feminine unwillingness to rise, is fastened to the
India end

A decade of years ago, no sane woman would have
presumed to appeal to the women and young girls of
this land to engage in a project such as this of Ramabai,
as I now do. But how rapidly we are moving on in
these last days ! We read in prophecy that "the earth
shall be made to bring forth in one day," and "a na-
tion shall be born at once ;" and another sure word is
written, "the people shall be willing in the day of His
power " When in that great Hindu nation about to
come to the birth, the women are moved to arise in
their degradation, and themselves uttear the feeble cry,
" Help or we perish ! " it cannot be otherwise than that
a corresponding, multitude of women must be found
elsewhere, willing, in the day of God's power, to send
the help.

There have long been in every community, women
who are not in accord with the so-called missionary

Introduction. xxiii

societies, and who never contribute to the enlighten-
ment or to the material aid of Oriental women. Rama-
bai's boarding-school for child- widows, primarily an
educational scheme, may be safely taken up by such,
and while they organize, and after the manner of the
women's boards of the churches, through a great net-
work of auxiliary societies, prosecute with growing
interest and zeal their child-widow school work, mis-
sionary work so-called, may be continued by the socie-
ties of every denomination, each according to its own
methods, the treasuries of all being alike full.

The Pundita bears witness, in public and in private, to
the good accomplished in the Bast by missionary lady-
teachers, and it is her earnest desire not to affect unfa-
vorably in any manner, however remote, either the
treasury or the work of church societies. She seeks to
reach Hindu women as Hindus, to give them liberty
and latitude as regards religious convictions ; she would
make no condition as to reading the Bible or studying
Christianity ; but she designs to put within their reach
in reading-books and on 4 the shelves of the school
library, side by side, the Bible and the Sacred books of the
East, and for the rest, earnestly pray that God will
guide them' to His saving truth.

It is roughly computed that Ramabai will need about
fifteen thousand dollars to fully inaugurate the work
of her first school and five thousand dollars annually
afterwards during the ten years for which she asks help.

So easy is it to plan, so difficult to execute ! Ram-
abai herself offers a reasonable means by which the
collection of this sum may be commenced, in the pre-
sentation of this, her only American book to the public.
It has been privately printed, in order that the entire
profits may accrue to her; in the hope of a possible
large sale, the pages have been copyrighted and elec-
trotyped. If, therefore, every American woman who,

xxiv Introduction.

at any time during the last twelvemonth, has taken
Ramabai by the hand, every college student who has
heard the Pundita speak in college halls, every reader
of this book whose heart has been stirred to compas-
sion by the perusal of its sorrowful pages, will at once
purchase a copy of the book and induce a fnend to do
the same, each reader being responsible for the sale of
one copy, the work is done, and the large fund needed
to prepay three passages to India, to purchase the illus-
trative material for the school-rooms, to illustrate and
print the school-books, and secure the needed school-
property in India, is at once assured.

Ramabai has come into my library to bid me fare-
well, previous to her setting out pn a journey of a
few days. I asked her as she arose to depart, if she
had a last message for the readers of her book. "Re-
mind them/' she replied, with animated counten-
ance and rapid speech, as she clasped my hand "that
it was * out of Nazareth ' that the blessed Redeemer of
mankind came ; that great reforms have again and
again been wrought by instrumentalities that the world
despised. Tell them to help me educate the high-caste
child-widows ; for I solemnly believe that this hated
and despised class of women, educated and enlight-
ened, are, by God's grace, to redeem India I"

R.

1400 NORTH aist ST , PHILADELPHIA,
June ist, 1887.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.
PREFATORY REMARKS,

CHAPTER IL
CHILDHOOD, ................... . 12

CHAPTER III.
MARRIED LIFE, ................... 29

CHAPTER IV.
WOMAN'S PI<ACE IN REWOION AND SOCIETY, ... 50

CHAPTER V.
WIDOWHOOD, .................... 69

CHAPTER VI.
How EBB CONDITION OF WOMEN TEI<I^ UPON SOCIETY, 94

CHAPTER VH.
THE AWPRAI* .................... 107

THE

HIGH-CASTE HINDU WOMAN.

PREFATORY REMARKS.

IN order to understand tlie life of a Hin-
du woman, it is necessary for the foreign
reader to know something of the religion and
the social customs of the Hindu nation. The
population of Hindustan numbers two hund-
red and fifty millions, and is made up of Hin-
dus, Mahometans, Eurasians, Europeans and
Jews ; more than three-fifths of this vast popu-
lation are professors of the so-called Hindu
religion in one or the other of its forms.
Among these the religious customs and orders
are essentially the same ; the social customs
differ slightly in various parts of the country,

2 The High- Caste Hindu Woman.

but they have an unmistakable similarity un-
derlying them.

The religion of the Hindus is too vast a
subject to be fully treated in a few para-
graphs ; it may be briefly stated, however, some-
what thus : All Hindus recognize the Vedas
and other apocryphal books as the canonical
scriptures. They believe in one supreme spirit,
Paramatrna, which is pure, passionless, omni-
present, holy and formless in its essence, but
when it is influenced by Maya, or illusion, it
assumes form, becomes male and female, creates
every thing in the universe out of its own
substance. A Hindu, therefore, does not think
it a sin to worship rivers, mountains, heavenly
bodies, creatures, etc., since they are all con-
substantial with God and manifestations of the
same spirit Any one of these manifestations
may be selected to be the object of devotion >
according to a man's own choice ; Iris favorite
divinity he will call the supreme ruler of tfte
universe, and the others gods, servants of tibt# ,
supreme ruler.

Prefatory Remarks. 3

Hindus believe in tlie immortality of the
soul, inasmuch as it is consubstantial with
God; man is rewarded or punished according
to his deeds. He undergoes existences of dif-
ferent descriptions in order to reap the fruit
of his deeds. When at length he is free from
the consequences of his action, which he can
be by knowing the Great Spirit as it is and
its relation to himself, he is then re-absorbed
into the spirit and ceases to be an individual ;
just as a river ceases to be different from the
ocean when it flows into the sea.

According to this doctrine, a man is liable
to be born eight million four hundred thous-
and times before he can become a Brahman
(first caste), and except one be a Brahman he
is not fit to be re-absorbed into #ie spirit, even
though he obtain the true kri$^ledg;e of the
Paramatma* It is, therefore, necessary for every
person of other castes to be careful not to
, transgress the law by any imprudent act, lest
he be again subjected to be born eight million
fotit > hundred thousand times. A Brahman

4 The High-Caste Hindu Woman.

must incessantly try to attain to the perfec-
tion of the supreme knowledge, for it is his
last chance to get rid of the misery of the
long series of earthly existences ; the least
trifling transgression of social or religious rules
however renders him liable to the degradation
of perpetual births and deaths.

These, with the caste beliefs, are the chief
articles of the Hindu creed at the present
day. There are a few heterodox Hindus who
deny all this ; they are pure theists in their
belief, and disregard all idolatrous customs.
These Bramos, as they are called, are doing
much good by purifying the national religion.

As regards social customs, it may be said
that the daily life and habits of the people
are immensely influenced by religion in India.
There is not an act that is not performed

religiously by them ; a humorous author tag

i 1

said, with some truth, that "the Hindus eve&
sin religiously." The rising from the bed ift,
the morning, the cleaning of teeth, washing
of hands and bathing of the body,

Prefatory Remarks. 5

ing of garments, lighting the fire or the lamp,
eating and drinking and every act of similar
description, is done in a prescribed manner,
and with the utterance of prayers or in pro-
found silence. Each custom, when it is old

enough to be entitled "the way of the an-

*

cients," takes the form of religion and is
scrupulously observed. These customs, founded
for the most part on tradition, are altogether
independent of the canonical writings, so much
so that a person is liable to be punished, or
even excommunicated, for doing a deed for-
bidden by custom, even though it be sanc-
tioned by religion.

For example, eating the food prepared by
persons of an inferior caste is not only not
forbidden by the sacred laws, but is sanctioned
by them.*

At the present day, however, time-honored

* " Pure men of the first three castes shall prepare the
food of a householder" (Brahman or other high caste).

4 * Or Shudras (servile caste) may prepare the food under

the superintendence of men of the first three castes."

Apastymbo, XL 2, 3. i. 4.

6 The High-Caste Hindu Woman.

custom overrules the ancient laws, and says
that a person must not eat anything cooked
nor drink water polluted by the touch of a
person of inferior caste. Hindus transgressing
this rule instantly forfeit their caste, and must
undergo some heavy penance to regain it

Without doubt, "caste" originated in the
economical division of labor. The talented and
most intelligent portion of the Aryan Hindus
became, as was natural, the governing body
of the entire race. They, in their wisdom,
saw the necessity of dividing society, and sub-
sequently set each portion apart to undertake
certain duties which might promote the wel-
fare of the nation. The priesthood (Brahman
caste) were appointed to be the spiritual gov-
ernors over all, and were the recognized head
of society. The vigorous, warlike portion of
the people (Kshatriya, or warrior caste) was
to defend the country, and suppress crime and
injustice by means of physical strength; as-
sisted by the priesthood, they were to be the
temporal governors in the administration of

Prefatory Remarks. 7

justice. Tile business-loving tradesmen and
artisans (Vaisya, or trader caste) had also an
important position assigned under the pre-
ceding classes or castes. The fourth, or servile
class (Shudra caste) was made up of all those
not included in the preceding three castes. In
ancient times persons were assigned to each
of the four castes according to their individual
capacity and merit, independent of the acci-
dent of birth.

Later on, when caste became an article of
the Hindu faith, it assumed the formidable pro-
portions ;which now prevail everywhere in In-
dia. A son of a Brahman is honored as the
head of all castes, not because of his merit,
but because he was born into a Brahman
family. Intermarriage of castes was once re-
cognized as lawful, even after caste by inheri-
tance had been acknowledged, provided that
a woman of superior caste did not marry a
man of an inferior caste ; but now law
is overruled by custom. Intermarriages can-
not take place without involving serious

8 The High- Caste Hindu Woman.

consequences, and making the offenders out-
casts.

The four principal castes* are again divided
into clans ; men belonging to high clans must
not give their daughters in marriage to men of
low clans. To transgress this custom is to
k lose family honor, caste privileges, and even
intercourse with friends and relatives.

Besides the four castes and their clans there
are numerous castes called collectively, "mixed
castes" formed by the intermarriage of mem-
bers of the preceding; their number is again
increased by castes according to employment,
as scribe, tanner, cobbler, shoemaker, tailor,
etc., etc. Even the outcasts, such for exam-
ple as the sweeper, have their own distinc-
tions, as powerful among themselves as are

* "There are four castes Brahmanas, Kshatriyas, Vais-
yas, and Shudras."

"Amongst these, each preceding caste is superior by
birth to the one following." -Apastamba I. i, i, 3, 4.

"The Brahmana, the Kshatriya and the Vaisya castes
are the twice-born ones, but the fourth, the Shudra, has
one birth only ; there is no fifth caste." r Mantt X 4.

Prefatory Remarks. 9'

those of the high castes. Transgressors of
caste rules are, from the highest to the low-
est, subject to excommunication and severe
punishment Offenders by intermarriage, or
change of faith, are without redemption* It
must also be bprne in mind, that if a Brah-
man condescends to marry a person of lower
caste, or eats and drinks with any of them, he
is despised and shunned as an outcast, not
only by his own caste, fcut also by the low-*
caste with whose members he has entered into
such relation. The low-caste people will look
upon this Brahnten as a lawless wretch. So
deeply rooted is this custom in the heart
of every orthodox Hindu that he is not in
any way offended by the disrespect shown
him by a high caste man, since He recognizes
in it only what is ordered by religion. For,
although " caste " is confessedly an outgrowth
of social order, it has now become the first
great article of the Hindu creed all over India*
Thoughtful men like Buddha, Nanafc, Chai-
tanya and others rebelled against this

io The High- Caste Hindu Woman.

nical custom, and proclaimed the gospel of
social equality of all men, but " caste" proved
too strong for them. Their disciples at the
present day are as much subject to caste as
are any other orthodox Hindus. Even the'
Mahomedans have not escaped this tyrant;
they, too, are divided into several castes, and
are as strict as the Hindus in their observ-
ances. Over a million Hindu converts to
Christianity, members of the Roman Catholic
Church, are more or less ruled by caste. The
Protestant missionaries, likewise, found it diffi-
cult in early days to overcome caste prejudice
among their converts, and not many years
ago, in the Madras presidency, clergymen were
compelled to use different cups for each sepa-
rate caste when they celebrated the lord's
Supper.

The Vedas are believed by the devout Hin-
du to be the eternal, self-existing Word of
God, revealed by Him to different sages. Be-
sides the Vedas there are more than twenty-
five books of sacred law, ascribed to different

Prefatory Remarks. 1 1

inspired authors who wrote or

at various times, and on which are baseoffie'

principal customs and religious institutes of

the Hindus. Among these, the code of Manu

ranks highest, and is believed by all to be

very sacred, second to none but the Vedas

themselves.

Although Manu and the other law-givers
differ greatly on many points, they all agree on
things concerning women. According to this
sacred law a woman's life is divided into three
parts, viz : ist, Childhood ; 2nd, Youth or
married life ; 3rd, Widowhood or old age.

The translations of the sacred texts quoted
throughout this work are those found in the well-known
Sacred Books of the East>" 'edited by Prof. Max Mutter,
Clarendon Press, Oxford.

12 The High- Caste Hindu Woman.

CHAPTER II.

CHILDHOOD.

ALTHOUGH the code of Manu contains a sin-
gle passage in which it is written " A daugh-
ter is equal to a son," (See Manu ix., 130),
the context expressly declares that equality to
be founded upon the results attainable through
her son ; the passage therefore cannot be re-
garded as an exception to the statement that
the ancient code establishes the superiority of
male children, A son is the most coveted of
all blessings that a Hindu craves, for it is by
a son's birth in the family that the father is
redeemed.

"Through a son lie conquers the worlds, through a

Childhood. 1 3

son's son he obtains immortality, but through his son's
grandson he gains the world of the sun "Manx, ix., 137.
" There is no place for a man (in Heaven) who is desti-
tute of male offspring." Vasisktha, xvii. 2.

If a man is sonless, it is desirable that he
should have a daughter, for her son stands in
the place of a son to his grandfather, through
whom the grandfather may obtain salvation.

" Between a son's son and the son of a daughter there
exists in this world no difference ; for even the son of a
daughter saves him who has no sons, in the next world,
like the son's son.' 1 Manu, ix. 139.

In Western and Southern India when a girl
or a woman salutes the elders and priests,
they bless her with these words "Mayst thou
have eight sons, and may thy husband survive
thee." In the form of a blessing the deity is
never invoked to grant daughters. Fathers
very seldom wish to have daughters, for they
are thought to be the property of somebody
else ; besides, a daughter is not supposed to
be of any use to the parents in their old age.
Although it is necessary for the continuance of

14 The High-Caste Hindu Woman.

the race that some girls should be born into
the world, it is desirable that their number
by no means should exceed that of the boys,
If unfortunately a wife happens to have all
daughters and no son, Manu authorizes the
husband of such a woman to supersede her
with another in the eleventh year of their
marriage. *

In no other country is the mother so laden
with care and anxiety on the approach of
childbirth as in India* In most cases her hope
of winning her husband to herself hangs solely
on her bearing sons.

Women of the poorest as well as of the
richest families, are almost invariably sub-
jected to this trial. Many are the sad and
heart-rending stories heard from the lips of
unhappy women who have lost their husband's
favor by bringing forth daughters only, or by
having no children at all. Never shall I for-
get a sorrowful scene that I witnessed in my
childhood When about thirteen years of age

*See page 61,

Childhood. 1 5

I accompanied my mother and sister to a royal
liarem where they had been invited to pay a
visit. The Prince had four wives, three of
whom were childless. The eldest having been
blessed with two sons, was of course the favor-
ite of her husband, and her face beamed with
happiness.

We were shown into the nursery and the
royal bed-chamber, where signs of peace and
contentment were conspicuous. But oh ! what
a contrast to this brightness was presented in
the apartments of the childless three. Their
faces were sad and careworn ; there seemed no
hope for them iu this world, since their lord
was displeased with them, on account of their
misfortune.

A lady friend of mine in Calcutta told me
that her husband had warned her not to give
birth to a girl, the first time, ot he would never
sec her face again, but happily for this wife
and for her husband also, she had two sons
before the daughter came. In, the same family
there was another woman, the sister-in-law of

1 6 The High-Caste Hindu Woman.

my friend, whose first-born had been a daugh-
ter. She longed unceasingly to have a son,
in order to win her husband's favor, and when
I wa*it to the house, constantly besought me
to foretell whether this time she should have a
son ! Poor -woman ! she had been notified by
her husband that if she persisted in bearing
daughters she should be superseded by another
-wife, have coarse clothes to wear and scanty
food to eat, should have no ornaments, save
those which are necessary to show the exis-
tence of a husband, and she should be made
the drudge of the whole household. Not un-
frequently, it is asserted, that bad luck attends
a girl's advent, and poor superstitious mothers
in order to avert such a catastrophe, attempt
to convert the unborn child into a boy, if un-
happily it be a 'girl.

Rosaries used by mothers of sons are pro-
cured to pray with ; herbs and roots celebrated
for their virtue are eagerly and regularly sw^l*
lowed ; trees and son-giving gods are devoutjj
worshipped. There is a curious ceremony,

Childhood* 1 7

ored with the name of " sacrament, " which is
administered to the mother between the third
and the fourth month of her pregnancy for,
the purpose of converting the embryo into a
boy.

In spite of all these precautions girls will
come into Hindu households as ill-luck, or
rather nature, will have it After the birth of
one or more sons girls are not unwelcome,
and under such circumstances, mothers very
often long to have a daughter. And after
her birth both parents lavish love and ten-
derness upon her, for natural affection, though
modified and blunted by cruel custom, is still
strong in the parent's heart Especially may
this be the case with the Hindu mother. That
maternal affection, sweet and strong, before
which " there is neither male nor female, n
asserts itself not unfrequently in Hindu homes,
and overcomes selfishness and false fear of
popular custom. A loving mother will sacri-
fice her own happiness by braving the dis-
pleasure of her lord, afcd will treat her little

1 8 The High-Caste Hindu Woman.

daughter as the best of all treasures. Such
heroism is truly praiseworthy in a woman ;
t any country might be proud of her. But alas !
the dark side is too conspicuous to be passed
over in silence.

In a home. shadowed by adherence to cruel
custom and prejudice, a child is born into the
"world ; the poor mother is greatly distressed
to learn that the little stranger is a daughter,
and the neighbors turn their noses in all di-
rections to manifest their disgust and indigna-
tion at the occurrence of such a phenomenon.
The innocent babe is happily unconscious of
all that is going on around her, for a time at
least The mother, who has lost the favor of
her husband and relatives because of the girl's
birtlfcimay selfishly avenge herself by show-
ing disregard to infantile needs and slighting
babyish requests. Under such a mother the
baby soon begins to feel her misery, although
she does not understand how or why she is
caused to suffer this cruel injustice,

If a girl is born after her brother's death,

Childhood. 1 9

or if, soon after her birth, a boy in the
family dies, she is in either case regarded by
her parents and neighbors as the cause of the
boy's death. She is then constantly addressed
with some unpleasant name, slighted, beaten,
cursed, persecuted and despised by all. Strange
to say, some parents, instead, of thinking of
her as a comfort left to them, find it in their
hearts, in the constant manifestation of their
grief for the dear lost boy, to address the inno-
cent girl with words such as these: " Wretched
girl, why didst thou not die instead of our
darling boy? Why didst thou crowd him out
of the house by coming to us ; or why didst
not thou thyself become a boy?" "It would
have been good for all of us if thou hadst
died and thy brother lived!" I have myself
several times heard parents say such things to
their daughters, who, in their turn, looked
sadly and wonderingly into the parents' faces,
not comprehending why such cruel speeches
should be heaped upon their heads when they
had not done any harm to their brothers.

20 The High-Caste Hindu Woman.

If there is a boy remaining in the family, all
the caresses and sweet words, the comforts and
gifts, the blessings and praises are lavished
upon him by parents and neighbors, and even
by servants, who fully sympathize with the
parents in their grief. On every occasion the
poor girl is made to feel that she has no right
to share her brother's good fortune, and that
she is an unwelcome, unbidden guest in the
family.

Brothers, in most cases, are, of course, very
proud of their superior sex ; they can know no
better than what they see and hear concerning
their own and their sisters' qualities. They,
too, begin by and by to despise girls and
women. It is not a rare thing to hear a mere
slip of a boy gravely lecture his elder sister as
to what she should or should not do, and
remind her that she is only a girl and that he
is a boy. Subjected to such humiliation, most
girls become sullen, morbid and dull. There
are some fiery natures, however, who burn
with indignation, % and burst out in their own

Childhood. 21

childish eloquence; they tell their brothers
and cousins that they soon are going to be
given in marriage, and that they will not
come to see them, even if they are often
entreated to do so. Children, however, soon
forget the wrong done them ; they laugh, they
shout, they run about freely, and are gener-
ally merry when unpleasant speeches are not
showered upon them. Having little or no
education, except a few prayers and popular
songs to commit to memory, the little girls
are mostly left to themselves, and they, play
in whatever manner they please. When about
six or seven years of age they usually begin
to help their mothers in household work, or
in taking care of the younger children. -

I have mentioned earlier the strictness of
the modern caste system in regard to mar-
riage. Intelligent readers may, therefore, have
already guessed that this reason lies at the
bottom of the disfavor shown to girls in Hindu
homes. From the first moment of the daugh-
ter's birth, the parents are tormented inces-

22 The High- Caste Hindu Woman.

santly with anxiety in regard to her future,
and the responsibilities of their position. Mar-
riage is the most expensive of all Hindu fes-
tivities and ceremonies. The* marriage of a
girl of a high caste family involves an expen-
diture of two hundred dollars at the very least.
Poverty in India is so great that not many
fathers are able to incur this expense ; if there
are more than two daughters in a family, his
ruin is inevitable. For, it should be remem-
bered, the bread-winner of the house in Hindu
society not only has to feed his own wife and
children, but also his parents, his brothers
unable to work either through ignorance or
idleness, their families and the nearest widowed
relatives, all of whom very often depend upon
one man for their support ; besides these, there
are the family priests, religious beggars d.nd
others, who expect much from him. Thus,
fettered hand and foot by barbarously cruel
customs which threaten to strip him of every-
thing he has, starvation and death staring him
in the face, the wretched father of many girls

Childhood. 23

is truly an object of pity. Religion enjoins
that every girl must be given in marriage;
the neglect of this duty means for the father

unpardonable sin, public ridicule and caste ex-
communication. But this is not all. The girl
must be married within a fixed period, the
caste of the future husband must be the same,
and the clan either equal or superior, but never
inferior, to that of her father.

The Brahmans of Eastern India have ob-
served successfully their clan prejudice for
hundreds of years despite poverty ; they have
done this in part by taking advantage of
the custom of polygamy. A Brahman of a
high clan will marry ten, eleven, twenty, or
even one hundred and fifty girls. He makes
a business of it He goes up and down the
land marrying girls, receiving presents from
their parents, and immediately thereafter bid-
ding good-bye to the brides ; going home,
he never* returns to them. The illustrious
Brahtnan ^need not bother himself with the
care- of supporting so many wives, for the

24 The High-Caste Hindu Woman.

parents pledge themselves to maintain the
daughter all her life, if she stays with them a
married virgin to the end. In case of such a
marriage as this, the father is not required to
spend money beyond his means, nor is it diffi-
cult for him to support the daughter, for she
is useful to the family in doing the cooking and
other household work ; moreover, the father
has the satisfaction first^ of having given his
daughter in marriage, and thereby having
escaped disgrace and the ridicule of society ;
secondly^ of having obtained for himself the
bright mansions of the gods, since his daugh-
ter's husband is a Brahman of high clan.

But this form of polygamy does not exist
among the Kshatriyas, because, as a member
of the non-Brahman caste, a man is not al-
lowed by religion, to Beg or to receive gifts
from others, except from friends ; he therefore
cannot support either many wives or many
daughters. Caste and clan prejudice tyran-
nized the Rajputs of North and Northwestern
and Central India, who belong to the Ksha-

Childhood. 25

triyas or warrior caste, to such an extent that
they were driven to introduce the inhuman
and irreligious custom of female infanticide
into their society. This cruel act was per-
formed by the fathers themselves, or even
by mothers, at the command of the husband
whom they are bound to obey in all things.

It is a universal custom among the Rajputs
for neighbors and friends to assemble to con-
gratulate the father upon the birth of a child.
If a boy is born, his birth is announced
with music, glad songs and by distributing
sweetmeats. If a daughter, the father coolly
announces that "nothing" has been born into
his family, by which expression it is under-
stood that the child is a girl, and that she is
very likely to be nothing in this world, and
the friends go home grave and quiet

After considering how many girls could safe-
ly be allowed to live, the father took good
care to defend himself from caste and clan
tyranny by killing 'the extra girls at birth,
which was as easily accomplished as destroying

26 The High-Caste Hindu Woman.

a mosquito or other annoying insect Who
can save a babe if the parents are determined
to slay her, a&d eagerly watch for a suitable
opportunity? Opium is generally used to keep
the crying child quiet, and a small pill of this
drug is sufficient to accomplish the cruel task ;
a skillful pressure upon the neck, which is
known as the " putting nail to the throat, "
also answers the purpose. There are several
other nameless methods that may be employed
in sacrificing the innocents upon the unholy
altar of the caste and clan system. Then
there are not a few child-thieves who gene-
rally steal girls ; even the wild animals are so
intelligent and of such refined taste that they
mock at British law, and almost always steal
girls to satisfy their hunger.

Female infanticide, though not sanctioned
by religion, and never looked upon as right
by conscientious people, has, nevertheless, in
those parts of India mentioned, been silently
passed over unpunished by society in general.
As early as 1802 the British government

Childhood. 27

enacted laws for the suppression of this horrid
crime ; and more than forty years ago Major
Ludlow, a kind-hearted Englishman, induced
the semi-independent States to prohibit this
custom, which the Hindu princes did, by a
mutual agreement not to allow any one to
force the father of a girl to give more dowry
than his circumstances should warrant, and to
discourage extravagance in the celebration of
marriages. But caste and clan prejudice could
not be overcome so easily.

Large expenses might be stopped by law,
but a belief, deeply rooted in the hearts and,
religiously observed by the people for centu-
ries, could not be removed by external rules.

The Census of 1870 revealed the curious fact
that three hundred children were stolen in one
year by wolves from within the city of Umrit-
zar, all the children being girls, and this un-
der the very nose of the English government.
In the year 1868 an English official, Mr. Ho-
bart, made a tour 1 of inspection through those
parts of India where female infanticide was most

28 The High-Caste Hindu Woman.

practiced before the government enacted the
prohibitory law. As a result of careful observa-
tion, he came to the conclusion that this horri-
ble practice was still followed in secret, and to
an alarming extent/

The Census returns of 1880-81 show that
there are fewer women than men in India by
over five millions. Chief among the causes
which have brought about this surprising nume-
rical difference of the sexes may be named, after
female infanticide in certain parts of the coun-
try, the imperfect treatment of the diseases of
women in all parts of Hindustan, together
with lack of proper hygienic care and medical
attendance.

Married Life. 29

CHAPTER III.

MARRIED

IT is not easy to determine when the child-
hood of a Hindu girl ends and the married life
begins. The early marriage system, although
not the oldest custom of my country, is at least
five hundred years older than the Christian era.
According to Manu, eight years is the mini-
mum, and twelve years of age the maximum
marriageable age for a high caste girl.* The
earlier the act of giving the daughter in mar-
riage, the greater is the merit, for thereby the
parents are entitled to rich rewards in heaven,

*A man aged thirty years shall marry a maiden of
tatl^e who pleases him, or a man of twenty-four a girl
of eight years of age, Manu ix<, 94*

30 The High- Caste Hindu Woman.

There have always been exceptions to this rule,
however. Among the eight kinds of marriages
described in the law, there is one form that is
only an agreement between the lovers to be loyal
to each other ; in this form of marriage there is
no religious ceremony, nor even a, third party
to witness and confirm the agreement and rela-
tionship, and yet by the law this is regarded
as completely lawful a marriage as any other.
It is quite plain from this fact that all girls were
not betrothed between the age of eight and
twelve years, and also that marriage was not
considered a religious institution by the Hindus
in olden times. All castes and classes could
marry in this form if they chose to do so. One
of the most noticeable facts connected with this
form is this : women as well as men were quite
free to choose their own future spouses. In
Europe and America women do choose their
husbandSj but it is considered a shame for
a woman to be the first to request marriage, and
both men and women will be shocked equally
at such an occurrence ; but in India, women

Married Life. 31

had equal freedom with men, in this case at
least A woman might, without being put to
shame, and without shocking the other party,
come forward and select her own rfisband.
The Svayamvara (selecting husband) was quite
common until as late as the eleventh century,
A. D., and even now, although very rarely, this
custom is practiced by a few people.

I know of a woman in the Bombay presidency
who is married to a Brahman according to this
form. The first wife of the man is still living ;
the second wife, being of another caste, he
could not openly acknowledge as his reli-
giously wedded wife, but he could do so with-
out going through the religious ceremony had
she been of his own caste, as the act is sanc-
tioned by Hindu law. The lawless beha-
viour of the Mahomedan intruders from the
twelfth century, A. B., had much to do in uni-
versalizing infant marriage in India. A great
many girls are given in marriage at the present
day litmlly while they are still in their cradles ;
from ve to eleven years is the usual period

32 The Hig&- Caste Hindu Woman.

for their marriage among the Brahmans all
over India* As it is absurd to assume that
girls should be allowed to choose their future
husbanfts in their infancy, this is done for
them by their parents* and guardians* In the
northern part of the country the family barber
is generally employed to select boys and girls
to be married, it being considered too humilia-
ting and mean an act on the part of parents
and guardians to go out to seek their future
daughters and sons-in-law.

Although Manu has distinctly said that
twenty-four years is the minimum marriage-
able age for a young man, the popular cus-
tom defies the law. Boys of ten and twelve
are now doomed to be married to girls of
seven and eight years of age. A boy of a
well-to-do family does not generally remain a
bachelor after seventeen or eighteen years of
age; the respectable but very poor families,
even if they are of high caste, cannot afford to
marry their boys so soon, but even among them
it is a shame for a man to remain unmarried

Married Life. 33

after twenty or twenty-five. Boys as well as
girls have no voice in the selection of their
spouses at the first marriage, but if a man
lose his first wife, and marries a second time, he
has a voice in the matter.

Although the ancient law-givers thought it
desirable to marry girls when quite young, and
consequently ignored their right to choose their
own husbands, yet they were not altogether
void of humane feelings. They have positively
forbidden parents and guardians to give away
girls in marriage unless good suitors were of-
fered them.

"To a distinguished, handsome suitor of equal caste
should a father give his daughter in accordance with the
prescribed rule, though she have not attained the proper
age" Manii^, 88.

"But the maiden, though marriageable, should rather
stop in the father's house until death, than that he should
ever give her to a man destitute of good qualities."
> ix. $9.

But, alas, here too the law is defied by cruel
custom. It allows some men to remain un-
married, but woe to the maiden and to her
; '.' 3

34 The High- Caste Hindu Woman.

family if she is so unfortunate as to remain
single after the marriageable age. Although
no law has ever said so, the popular belief is
that a woman can have no salvation unless
she be formally married. It is not, then, a
matter of wonder that parents become ex-
tremely anxious when their daughters are over
eight or nine and are unsought in marriage.
Very few suitors offer to marry the daughters
of poor parents, though they may be of high
caste families. Wealth has its own pride and
merit in India, as everywhere else in the
world, but even this powerful wealth is as
nothing before caste rule. A high caste man
will never condescend to marry his daughter
to a low caste man though he be a millionaire.
But wealth in one's own caste surpasses the
merits of learning, beauty and honor; parents
generally seek boys of well-to-do families for
their sons-in-law. As the boys are too young
to pass as possessing "good qualities," i. <?.,
learning, common-sense, ability to support and
take care of a family, and respectable char-

Married Life. 35

acter, the parents wish, to see their daugh-
ter safe in a family where she will, at* least,
have plenty to eat and to wear ; they, of
course, wish her to be happy with her hus-
band, but in their judgment that is not the
one thing needful. So long as they have ful-
filled the custom, and thereby secured a good
name in this world and heavenly reward in
the next, their minds are not much troubled
concerning the girl's fate. If the boy be of
rich or middle class people, a handsome sum
of money must be given to him and his family
in order to secure the marriage ; beside this,
the girl's family must walk very humbly with,
this little god, for he is believed to be indwelt
by the god Vishnu. Poor parents cannot have
the advantage of marrying their daughters -to
boys of prosperous families, and as they must
marry them to some one, it very frequently
happens that girls of eight or nine are given
to *nen of sixty and seventy, or to men utterly

4

unworthy of the young maidens.

Paxetits wbo have the means to secure good-

36 The High- Caste Hindu Woman.

looking, prosperous men for their sons-in-law,
take great care to consult the horoscopes of
both parties in order to know the future of
their daughters ; in such cases, they are anx-
ious to ascertain, over and above all things,
that the girl shall not become a widow. If
the daughter's horoscope reveals that her future
husband is to survive her, the match is con-
sidered very satisfactory ; but if it reveals the
reverse, then a boy having a horoscope equally
bad is sought for, because it is sincerely be-
lieved that in that case the guardian planets
will wrestle with each other, and, as almost
always happens, that the stronger, i. e., the
husband's planet will be victorious, or else
both parties will fall in the conflict, and the
husband and wife die together. A friend of
mine informed me that three hundred horos-
copes were rejected before one was found which
agreed satisfactorily with her sister's guardian
planet. Undoubtedly many suitors, who might
make good husbands for these little girls, are
for this reason rejected, and unworthy men fall

Married Life. 37

to their lot ; thus, the horoscope becomes a
source of misery instead of blessing.

It not unfrequently happens that fathers give
away their daughters in marriage to strangers
without exercising care in making inquiry
concerning the suitor's character and social
position. It is enough to learn from the man's
own statement, his caste and clan, and the
locality of his home. I know of a most extraor-
dinary marriage that took place in the following
manner : the father was on a religious pilgrim-
age with his family, which consisted of his wife
and two daughters, one nine and the other seven
years of age, and they had stopped in a town to
take rest for a day or two. One morning the
father was bathing in the sacred river Godavari,
near the town, when he saw a fine-looking man
coming to bathe there also. After the ablution
and the morning prayers were over, the father
inquired of the stranger who he was and whence
he came ; on learning his caste, and clan, and
dwelling-place, also that he was a widower, the
father offered him bis little daughter of nine, ift

38 The High- Caste Hindu Woman.

marriage. All things were settled in an hour or
so ; next day the marriage was concluded, and
the little girl placed in the possession of the
stranger, who took her nearly nine hundred
miles away from her home. The father left the
place the day after the marriage without the
daughter, and pursued his pilgrimage with a
light heart ; fortunately the little girl had fallen
in good hands, and was well and tenderly cared
for beyond all expectation, but the conduct of
her father, who cared so little to ascertain his
daughter's fate, is none the less censurable.

When the time to conclude the marriage cere-
mony draws near, the Hindu mother's affection
for the girl frequently knows no bounds ; she
indulges her in endless ways, knowing that in
a few days her darling will be torn away from
her loving embrace. When she goes to pay the
customary visit to her child's future mother-in-
law many are the tearful entreaties and soul-
stirring solicitations that she will be as kind and
forbearing toward the little stranger as though
she were her own daughter. The boy's inotltefc

Married Life. 39

is moved at this time, for she has a woman's
heart, and she promises to be a mother to the
little bride. On the day fixed for the marriage,
parents formally give their daughter away to the
boy ; afterwards the young people are united by
priests who utter the sacred texts and pronounce
them man and wife in the presence of the sacred
fire and of relatives and friends. The mar-
riage being thus concluded, it is henceforth in-
dissoluble.

"Neither by sale nor by repudiation is a wife released
from her husband ; such we know the law to be which the
I^>rd of creatures made of old.'* Manu ix., 46.

Marriage is the only u Sacrament" adminis-
tered to a high caste woman, accompanied with
the utterance of the Vedic texts. It is to be
presumed that the texts are introduced in honor
of the man whom she marries, for no sacrament
must be administered to him without the sa-
cred formulae. Henceforth the girl is his, not
only his property, but also that of his nearest
relatives.

40 TJte High- Caste Hindu Woman.

"For they (the ancient sages) declare tliat a bride is
given to tlie family of her husband, and not to the husband
alone." Apastamba //., 10, 27, 3.

The girl now belongs to the husband's clan ;
she is known by his family name, and in some
parts of India the husband's relatives will not
allow her to be called by the first name that was
given her by her parents ; henceforth she is a
kind of impersonal being. She can have no
merit or quality of her own.

"Whatever be the qualities of the man with whom a
woman is united in lawful marriage, such qualities even she
assumes, like a river united with the ocean/' -Manu ix., 22,

Many of our girls when asked in fun whe-
ther they would like soon to be married would
innocently answer in the affirmative. They
often see their sisters, cousins or playmates mar-
ried ; the occasion is one long to be remembered
with pleasure. Even the poorest families take
great pains to make it pleasant to every-
body ; children enjoy it most of all. There are
gorgeous dresses', bright colored clothes, beau*

Married Life. 41

tiful decorations, music, songs, fireworks, fun,
plenty of fruit and sweet things to eat and to
give away, lovely flowers, and the whole house
is illuminated with many lamps. What can be
more tempting to a child's mind than these?
In addition to all this the hig elephant is some-
times brought, on which the newly-married
children ride in procession amidst all sorts
of fun. Is it not grand enough for a child?
Oh, I shall ride on the back of the elephant!
thinks the girl ; and there is something more
besides ; all the people in the house will wait on
me, will make much of me ; everybody will
caress and try to please me. "Oh, what fun I"

"I like to have a cold, and be ill," said a
girl of four. "Why, darling?" asked her
mother, in surprise. "Oh, because," replied
the little girl, "I like to eat my breakfast
in bed, ^nd then, too, everybody waits on
me!"

Who has not heard remarks such as these,
and laughed heartily over them? Children like
even to be ill for the sake of being waited on.

42 The High- Caste Hindu Woman.

What wonder, then, if Hindu girls like being
married for the sake of enjoying that much-
coveted privilege ! But little do these poor
innocents know what comes after the fun.
Little do they imagine that they must bid
farewell to home and mother, to noisy merri-
ment, and laughter, and to the free life of
pure enjoyment. Sometimes the child desires
to be married when, through superstition, she
is ill-treated at home by her nearest relatives,
otherwise there can be no reason except the
enjoyment of fun that excites the desire in
the girl's heart, for when the marriage takes
place she is just emerging from babyhood.

Childhood is, indeed, the heyday of a Hindu
woman's life. Free to go in and out where
she pleases, never bothered by caste or other
social restrictions, never worried by lesson-
learning, sewing, mending or knitting, loved,
petted and spoiled by parents, brothers and
sisters, uncles and aunts, she is little differ-
ent from a young colt whose days are spent
in complete liberty. Then lo, all at once

Married Life. 43

the ban of marriage is pronounced and the
yoke put on her neck forever !

Immediately after the marriage ceremony is
concluded the boy takes his girl-bride home
and delivers her over to his own mother, who
becomes from that time until the girl grows
old enough to be given to her husband, her sole
mistress, and who wields over the daughter-in-
law undisputed authority !

It must be borne in mind that both in
Northern and Southern India, the term u mar-
riage ' ' does not mean anything more than
an irrevocable betrothal. The ceremony gone
through at that time establishes religiously the
conjugal relationship of both parties ; there is
a second ceremony that confirms the relation-
ship both religiously and socially, which does
not take place until the children attain the age
of puberty. In Bengal the rule is somewhat
different, and proves in many cases greatly in-
jurious to the human system. In some very
rare cases the girls are allowed to remain with
their own parents for a time at least. In the

44 The High- Caste Hindu Woman.

North of India the little bride's lot is a hap-
pier one to begin with ; she not being forced

to go to her husband's home until she is

*

about thirteen or fourteen years of age.

The joint family system, which is one of the
peculiarities of Eastern countries, is very deeply
rooted in the soil of India. There may not
unfrequently be found four generations living
under one roof. The house is divided into two
distinct parts, namely, the outer and the inner
court. The houses, as a rule, have but few
windows, and they are usually dark ; the
men's court is comparatively light and good.
Houses in country places are better than those
in the crowded cities. Men and women have
almost nothing in common.

The women's court is situated at the back of
the house, where darkness reigns perpetually.
There the child-bride is brought to be forever
confined. She does not enter her husband's
house to be the head of a new home, but rather
enters the house of the father-in-law to become
the lowest of its members, and to occupy the

Married Life. 45

humblest position in the family. Breaking the
young bride's spirits is an essential part of the
discipline of this new abode. She must never
talk or laugh loudly, must never speak before
or to the father and elder brother-in-law, or
any other distant male relatives of her hus-
band, unless commanded to do so. In Northern
India, where all women wear veils, the young
bride or woman covers her face with it, or
runs into another room to show respect to
them, when these persons enter an apartment
where she happens to be. In Southern India,
where women, as a rule, do not wear veils,
they need not cover their faces ; they rise to
show respect to elders and to their husbands,
and remain standing as long as they are
obliged to be in their presence.

The mothers-in-law employ their daughters
in all kinds of household work, in order to
give them a thorough knowledge of domestic
duties. These children of nine or ten years
of age find it irksome to work hard all day
long without the hope of hearing a word of

46 The High- Caste Hindu Woman.

praise from the mother-in-law. As a rule, the
little girl is scolded for every mistake she
commits ; if the work be well done, it is
silently accepted, words of encouragement and
praise from the elders being regarded as spoil-
ing children and demoralizing them ; the faults
of the little ones are often mistaken for inten-
tional offences, and then the artillery of abu-
sive speech is opened upon them ; thus, mor-
tified and distressed, they seek to console
themselves by shedding bitter tears in silence,
In such sorrowful hours they miss the dear
mother and her loving sympathy.

I must, however, do justice to the mothers-
in-law. Many of them treat the young brides
of their sons as their own children ; many are
kind and affectionate, but ignorant ; they easily
lose their temper and seem to be hard when
they do not mean to be so. Others again,
having themselves been the victims of merci-
less treatment in their childhood become hard-
hearted ; such an one will do all $he can to
torment the child by using abusive language,

Married Life. 47

by beating her and slandering her before the
neighbors. Often she is not satisfied by doing
this herself, but induces and encourages the
son to join her. I have several times seen
young wives shamefully beaten by beastly young
husbands who cherished no natural love for
them.

As we have seen, the marriage is con-
cluded without the consent of either party,
and after it the bride is not allowed to speak
or be acquainted with the husband until after
the second ceremony, and even then the young
couple must never betray any sign of their
mutual attachment before a third party. Un-
der such circumstances they seldom meet and
talk ; it may therefore be easily understood
that being cut off from the chief means of
forming attachment, the young couple are al-
most strangers, and in many cases do. not like
their relationship ; and if in the midst of all
this, the mother-in-law begins to encourage the^
ypuug man to torment his wife in various
ways, it is not strange that a feeling akin to

48 The High- Caste Hindu Woman.

hatred takes root between them. A child of
thirteen was cruelly beaten by her husband
in my presence for telling the simple truth,
that she did not like so well to be in his
house as at her own home.

In spite, however, of all these drawbacks,
there is in India many a happy and loving
couple that would be an honor to any nation.
Where thfe conjugal relation is brightened by
mutual love, the happy wife has nothing to
complain of except the absence of freedom
of thought and action; but since wives have
never known from the beginning what freedom
is, they are generally well content to remain
in bondage ; there is, however, no such thing
as the family having pleasant times together.

Men spend their evenings and other leisure
hours with friends of their own sex, either in

the outer* court or away from home. Children

to

enjoy the company of father and mother alter-
nately, by going in and out when they choose,
but the children of young parents are never
made happy by the father's caresses or any

Married Life. 49

other demonstration of his love in the pre-
sence of the elders ; the notion of false mod-
desty prevents the young father from speaking
to his children freely. The women of the
family usually take their meals after the men
have had theirs, and the wife, as a rule, eats
what her lord may please to leave on his plate.

50 The High- Caste Hindu Woman.

CHAPTER IV.

WOMAN'S PLACE IN RELIGION AND SOCIETY.
THE Hindu religion commands ;

" Women must "be honored and adorned by their fathers,
brothers, husbands, and brothers-in-law, who desire their
own welfare."

" Where women are honored, there the gods' are pleased ;
but where they are not honored, no sacred rite yields
rewards,"

"Where the female relations live in grief, the family
soon wholly perishes; but that family where they are
not unhappy ever prospers."

" The houses on which female relations, not being duly
honored, pronounce a curse,, perish completely, as if de-
stroyed by magic,"

"Hence men who seek their own welfare, should al-
ways honor women on holidays and festivals with (gifts
of) ornaments, clothes and dainty food,"

" In that family where the husband is pleased with hi

In Religion and Society. 51

wife, and the wife with her husband, happiness will
assuredly be lasting.*'

"For if the wife is not radiant with beauty, she will
not attract her husband ; but if she has no attractions
for him, no children will be born." '

" If the wife is radiant with beauty, the whole house
is bright ; but if she is destitute of beauty, all will appear
dismal.** Manu, iii., 55-62.

These commandments are very significant.
Our Aryan Hindus did, and still do honor
woman to a certain extent The honor be-
staved upon the mother is without parallel
in any other country. Although the woman
is looked upon as an inferior being, the
mother is nevertheless the chief person and
worthy to receive all honor from the son.
One of the great commandments of the Hindu
Scriptures is, "I*t thy mother be to thee \
like unto a god."*

*My readers would perhaps be interested to see these
commandments; they are as foUows : " After having
taught the Veda, the teacher instructs the pupil :

Say what is true.

Do thy duty.

Do not neglect the study of the Veda.

52 The High- Caste Hindu Woman.

The mother is the queen of the son's house-
'hold. She wields great power there, and is
generally obeyed as the head of the family
by her sons and by her daughters-in-law. '

But there is a reverse side to the shield that
should not be left unobserved. This is best
studied in the laws of Manu, as all Hindus,
with a few exceptions believe implicitly what
that law-giver says about women :

After having brought to tliy teacher his proper reward,
do not cut off the line of children I (i. e. Do, not remain
unmarried).

Do not swerve from the truth.

Do not swerve from duty.

Do not neglect what is useful.

Do not neglect the learning and teaching of the Veda.

Do not neglect the sacrificial works due to the gods
and fathers.

Let thy mother be to thee like unto a god.

Let thy father be to tliee like unto a god.

Let thy teacher be to thee like unto a god.

Let thy guests be to thee like unto a god

Whatever actions are blameless those should be re*
garded, not others.

Whatever good works have been performed by us
should be observed by thee, not others." Taittiriya
Upamshad, Valli, ,i. An. si, i, 2.

In Religion and Society. 53

"It is the nature of women to seduce men in this
world ; for that reason the wise are never unguarded in
the company of females."

"For women are able to lead astray in this world not
only a fool, but even a learned man, and to make him a
slave of desire and anger." Manu t ri., 213-214.

" Women do not care for beauty, nor is their attention
fixed on age; thinking 'it is enough that he is a man,'
they give themselves to the handsome and to the ugly."

" Through their passion for men, through then- mutable
temper, through their natural heartlessness, they become
disloyal towards their husbands, however carefully they
may be guarded in this world."

"Knowing their disposition, which the Ix>rd of crea-
tures laid in them at the creation, to be such, every man
should most strenuously exert himself to guard them."

"When creating them, Manu allotted to women a love
of their bed, of their seat and of ornament, impure de-
sires, wrath, dishonesty, malice and bad conduct"

"For women no sacramental rite is performed with
sacred texts, thus the law is settled; women who are
destitute of strength and destitute of the knowledge of
Vedic texts, are as impure as falsehood itself, that is a
fixed rule." Manu ix., 14-18.

Such is the opinion of Manu concerning all
women ; and all men with more or less faith
in the law regard women, even though they
be their own mothers, "as impure as fake-
hood itself."

54 The High-Caste Hindu Woman.

"And to this effect many sacred texts are chanted also
in the Vedas, in order to make fully known the true dis-
position of women ; hear now those texts which refer to
the expiation of their sins."

" ' If my mother, going astray and unfaithful, conceived
illicit desires, may my father keep that seed from me,'
that is the scriptural text"- Manu ix., 19, 20.

Such distrust and such low estimate of wo-
man's nature and character in general, is at
the root of the custom of seclusion of women
in India. 'This mischievous custom has greatly
increased and has become intensely tyrannical
since the Mahomedan invasion ; but that it
existed from about the sixth century, B,c.,
cannot be denied. All male relatives are com-
manded by the law to deprive the women of
the household of all their freedom :

"Bay and night women must be kept in dependence
by the males of their families, and if they attach them-
selves to sensual enjoyments, they must be kept under
one's control "

" Her father protects her in childhood, her husband pro-
tects her in youth, and her sons protect her in old age ;
a woman is never fit for independence. "Maw ix., 2, 3.

"Women must particularly be guarded against evil in-

In Religion and Society. 55

clinations, however trifling they may appear; for if they
are not guarded, they "will bnng sorrow on two families."

"Considering that the highest duty of all castes, even
weak husbands must strive to guard their wives." Manu
ix., 5, 6.

*' No man can completely guard women by force ; but
they can be guarded by the employment of the following
expedients : " *

"Let the husband employ his wife in the collection
and expenditure of his wealth, in keeping everything
clean, in the fulfilment of religious duties, in the prepara-
tion of his food, and in looking after the household uten-
sils." Manu ix., 10, n.

Those who diligently and impartially read
Sanscrit literature in the original, cannot fail
to recognize the law-giver Manu as one of
those hundreds who have done their best to
make woman a hateful being in the world's eye.
To employ her in housekeeping and kindred
occupations is thought to be the only means
of keeping her out of mischief, the blessed
enjoyment of literary culture being denied her*
She is forbidden to read the sacred scriptures,
she has no right to pronounce a single sylla-
ble out of them. To appease her uncultivated,
low kind of desire by giving her ornaments

56 The High- Caste Hindu Woman.

to adorn her person, and by giving her
dainty food together with an occasional bow
which costs nothing, are the highest honors
to which a Hindu woman is entitled. She,
the loving mother of the nation, the devoted
Wife, the tender sister and affectionate daugh-
ter is never fit for independence, and is "as
impure as falsehood itself. " She is never to
be trusted ; matters of importance are never
to be committed to her*

I can say honestly and truthfully, that I
have never read any sacred book in Sanscrit
literature without meeting this kind of hateful
sentiment about women. True, they contain
here and there a kind word about them, but
such words seem to me a heartless mockery*
after having charged them, as a class, with
crime and evil deeds.

Profane literature is by no means less severe
or more respectful towards women. I quote
from the ethical teachings, parts of a catechism
and also a few proverbs :

In Religion and Society.

Q What is cruel?

A. The heart of a viper.

Q. What is more cruel than that?

A. The heart of a woman.

Q. What is the cruelest of all >

A. The heart of a sonless, penniless widow.

A catechism on moral subjects writt
Hindu gentleman of high literary re
says :

Q What is the chief gate to hell?
A. A woman.

Q. What bewitches like wine?
A. A woman.

Q. Who is the wisest of the wise ?
A. He who has not been deceived by women
be compared to malignant fiends.
Q. What are fetters to men?
A. Women.

Q. What is that which cannot be trusted?
A. Women.

Q What poison is that which appears like ne
A. Women.

PROVERBS.

"Never put your trust in women."
"Women's counsel leads to destruction."
"Woman is a great whirlpool of suspicion, a

place of vices, full of deceits, a hindrance in tl

heaven, the gate of hell."

58 The High- Caste Hindu Woman.

Having fairly illustrated the popular belief
about woman's nature, I now proceed to state
woman's religion. Virtues such as truthful-
ness, forbearance, fortitude, purity of heart
and uprightness, are common to men and
women, but religion, as the word is commonly
understood, has two distinct natures in the
Hindu law ; the masculine and the feminine.
The masculine religion has its own peculiar
duties, privileges and honors. The feminine
religion also has its peculiarities.

The sum and substance of the latter may be
given in a few words: To look upon her
husband as a god, to hope for salvation only
through him, to be obedient to him in all
things, never to covet independence, never to
do anything but that which is approved by
law and custom.

"Hear now the duties of women," says the
law-giver, Manu :

" By a girl, by a young woman, or even by an aged
one, nothing must be done independently, even in her
own house."

In Religion and Society. 59

"In childhood, a female must be subject to her father,
in youth, to her husband, when her lord is dead, to her
sons ; a woman must never be independent."

" She must not seek to separate herself from her father,
husband, or sons ; by leaving them she would make both
her own and her husband's families contemptible."

"She must always be cheerful, clever in the manage-
ment of her household affairs, careful in cleaning her
utensils, and economical in expenditure."

"Him to whom her father may give her, or her bro-
ther with the father's permission, she shall obey as long
as he lives, and when he is dead, she must not insult his
memory."

"For the sake of procuring good fortune to brides, the
recitation of benedictory texts, and the sacrifice to the
Lord of creatures are used at weddings ; but the be-
trothal by the father or guardian is the cause of the hus-
band's dominion over his wife."

"The husband who wedded her with sacred texts, al-
ways gives happiness to his wife, both in season and out
of season, in this world and in the next."

"Though destitute of virtue, or seeking pleasure else-
where, or devoid of good qualities, yet a husband must
be constantly worshipped as a god by a faithful wife."

" No sacrifice, no vow, no fast must be performed by
women apart from their husbands ; if a wife obeys her
husband, she will for that reason alone, be exalted in
heaven "

"A faithful wife*, who desires to dwell after death with
her husband, must never do anything that might dis*
please him who took her hand whether he be alive or
dead." Manu v,, 147-156.

60 The High- Caste Hindu Woman.

"By violating her duty towards her husband, a wife is
disgraced in this world, after death she enters the wotub
of a jackal, and is tormented by diseases, the punishment
of her sin."

"She who> controlling ner thoughts, words and deeds,
never slights her lord, resides after death with her hus-
band in heaven, and is called a virtuous wife."

" In reward of such conduct, a female who controls her
thoughts, speech and actions, gams in this life highest
renown, and in the next world a place near her hus-
band." Manu v., 164-166.

MARITAI, RIGHTS.

" He only is a perfect man who consists of three per-
sons united, his wife, himself and his offspring; thus
says the Veda, and learned Brahmanas propound this
maxim likewise, 'The husband is declared to be one with
the wife.' **Manu ix., 45.

The wife is declared to be the " marital
property n of her husband, and is classed with
"cows, mares, female camels, slave-girls, buf-
falo-cows, she-goats and ewes." (See Mamt ix.,

The wife is punishable for treating her hus-
band with aversion :

"For one year let a husband bear with a wife who
hates him , but after a lapse of a year, let him deprive
her of her property and cease to live with her,"

In Religion and Society. 61

"She who shows disrespect to a husband who is ad-
dicted to some evil passion, is a drunkard, or diseased,
shall be deserted for three months, and be deprived of
her ornaments and furniture." Mann ix., 77, 78.

"She who drinks spirituous liquor, is of bad conduct,
rebellious, diseased, mischievous or wasteful, may at any
time be superseded by another wife."

" A barren wife may be superseded in the eighth year,
she whose children all die in the tenth, she who bears
only daughters in the eleventh, but she who is quarrel-
some without delay." Manu ix,, 80, 81.

" A wife who, being superseded, in anger departs from
her husband's house, must either be instantly confined
or cast off in the presence of the family." Manu ix., 83.

"Though a man may have accepted a damsel in due
form, he may abandon her if she be blemished or diseased,
and if she have been given with fraud," Mann ix., 72.

But no such provision is made for the 'wo-
man ; on the contrary, she must remain with
and revere her husband as a -god, even though
he be " destitute of virtue, and seek pleasure
elsewhere, or be devoid of good qualities,
addicted to evil passion, fond of spirituous
liquors or diseased, " and what not I

How much impartial justice is shown in the
treatment of womankind by Hindu law, can be
fairly understood after reading the above quota-

62 The HigfaCaste Hindu Woman.

tions. In olden times these laws were enforced
by the community ; a husband had absolute
power over his wife ; she could do nothing but
submit to his will without uttering a word of
protest Now, under the so-called Christian
British rule, the woman is in no better con-
dition than of old. True, the husband cannot
as in the golden age, take ^her whenever she
may be found, and drag her to his house, but
his absolute power over her person has not
suffered in the least He is now bound to
bring, suit against her in the courts of justice
to claim his "marital property," if she be,
unwilling to submit to him by any other
means.

A near relative of mine had been given in
her childhood * in marriage to a boy whose
parents agreed to let him stay and be educated
with her in her own home. No sooner how-
ever, had the marriage ceremony been con-
cluded than they forgot their agreement ; the
boy was taken to the home of his parents
where he remained t<* grow up to be a worth-

In Religion and Society. 63

less dunce, while his wife through the kind-
ness and advanced views of her father, devel-
oped into a bright young woman and well
accomplished.

Thirteen years later, the young 'man came to
claim his wife, but the parents had no heart
to send their darling daughter with a beggar
who posseted neither the power nor the sense
to make an honest living, and was unable to
support and protect his wife. The wife too,
had no wish to go with him since he was a
stranger to her; under the circumstances she
could neither love nor respect him. A num-
ber of orthodox people in the community who
saw no reason why a wife should not follow
her husband even though he be a worthless
man, collected funds to enable him to sue her
and her parents in the British Court of Jus-
tice. The case was examined with due cere-
mony and the verdict was given in the man's
favor, according to Hindu law.* The wife

*In all cases except those directly conntcted with life
and death, the British Government is bottnd according to

64 The High- Caste Hindu Woman.

was doomed to go with him. Fortunately
she was soon released from this sorrowful
world by cholera. Whatever may be said of
the epidemics that yearly assail our country,
they are not unwelcome among the unfortu-
nate women who are thus persecuted by so-
cial, religious and State laws. Many women
put an end to their earthly sufferings by
committing suicide. Suits at law between hus-
band and wife are remarkable for their rarity
in the British Courts in India, owing to the
ever submissive conduct of women who suffer
silently, knowing that the gods and justice
always favor the men.

The case of Rakhmabai, that has lately
profoundly agitated Hindu society, is only
one of thousands of the same class. The
remarkable thing about her is that she is
a well-educated lady, who was brought up
under the loving care of her father, and had

the treaties concluded with the inhabitants of India, not
to interfere with their social and religious customs and
laws ; judicial decisions are given accordingly.

In Religion and Society. 65

learned from him how to defend herself against
the assaults of social and religious bigotries.
But as soon as her father died the man who
claimed to be her husband, brought suit
against her in the court of Bombay. The
young woman bravely defended herself, declin-
ing to go to live with the man on the ground
that the marriage that was concluded without
her consent could not be legally considered as
such. Mr. Justice Pinhey, who tried the case
in the first instance, had a sufficient sense of
justice to refuse to force the lady to live
with her husband against her will. Upon
hearing this decision, the conservative party
all over India rose as one man and girded
their loins to denounce the helpless woman
and her handful of friends. They encouraged
the alleged husband to stand his ground firmly,
threatening the British government with pub-
lic displeasure if it failed to keep its agree-
ment to force the woman to go to live with
the husband according to Hindu law. Large
sums were collected for the benefit of this
5

66 The High-Caste Hindu Woman.

man, Dadajee, to enable him to appeal against
the decision to the full bench, whereupon, to
the horror of all right-thinking people, the
chief-justice sent back the case to the lower
court for re-trial on its merits, as judged by
the Hindu laws. The painful termination of
this trial, I have in a letter written by my
dear friend Rakhmabai herself, bearing date
Bombay, March i8th, 1887. I quote from her
letter :

" The learned and civilized judges of the full bench are
determined to enforce, in this enlightened age, the in-
human laws enacted in barbaric times, four thousand
years ago. They have not only commanded me to go
to live with the man, but also have obliged me to pay
the costs of the dispute. Just think of this extraordinary
decision I Are we not living under the impartial British
government, which boasts of giving equal justice to all,
and are we not ruled by the Queen-Empress Victoria,
herself a woman? My dear friend, I shall have been
cast into the State prison when this letter reaches you ;
this is because I do not, and cannot obey the order of
Mr. Justice Farran.

"There is no hope for women in India, whether they
be under Hindu rule or British rule ; some are of the
opinion that my case so cruelly decided, may bring about
a better condition for woman by turning public opinion in

In Religion and Society. 67

her favor, but I fear it will be otherwise. The hard-hearted
mothers-in-law will now be greatly strengthened, and will
induce their sons, who have for some reason or other,
been slow to enforce the conjugal rights to sue their
wives in the British Courts, since they are now fully as-
sured that under no circumstances can the British gov-
ernment act adversely to the Hindu law."

*

Taught by the experience of the past, we

are not at all surprised at this decision of the
Bombay court Our only wonder is that a
defenseless woman like Rakhmabai dared to
raise her voice in the face of the powerful
Hindu law, the mighty British government,
the one hundred and twenty-nine million men
and the three hundred and thirty million gods
of the Hindus, all these having conspired to-'
gether to crush her into- nothingness. We
cannot blame the English government for,
not defending a helpless woman ; it is only
fulfilling its agreement made with the male
population of India. How very true are the
words of the Saviour, "Ye cannot serve God
and Mammon." Should England serve God
by protecting a helpless woman against the

68 The High-Caste Hindu Woman.

powers and principalities of ancient institu-
tions, Mammon would surely be displeased,
and British profit and rule in India might be
endangered thereby. Let us wish it success,
no matter if that success be achieved at the

sacrifice of the rights and the comfort of over

one hundred million women.

Meanwhile, we shall patiently await the ad-
vent of the kingdom of righteousness, wherein
the weak, the lowly and the helpless shall be
made happy because the great Judge Himself
41 shall wipe away all tears from their eyes."

Widowhood* 69

CHAPTER V.

WIDOWHOOD.

WE now come to the worst and most dreaded
period of a high-caste woman's life. Through-
out India, widowhood is regarded as the pun-
ishment for a horrible crime or crimes com-
mitted by the woman in her former existence'
upon earth. The period of punishment may
be greater or less, according to the nature of
the crime. Disobedience and disloyalty to the
husband, or murdering him in an earlier exis-
tence are the chief crimes punished in the
present birth by widowhood.

If the widow be a mother of sons, she is
not usually a pitiable object ; although she is
certainly looked upon as a sinner, yet social

70 The High- Caste Hindu Woman.

abuse aad hatred are greatly dimished In vir-
tue of the fact that she is a mother of the
superior beings. Next in rank to her stands
an ancient widow, because a virtuous, aged
widow who has bravely withstood the thou-
sand temptations and persecutions of her lot
commands an involuntary respect from all
people, to which may be added the honor
given to old age quite independent of the in-
dividual. The widow-mother of girls is treated
indifferently and sometimes with genuine ha-
tred, especially so, when her daughters have
not been given in marriage in her husband's
life-time. But it is the child-widow or a
childless young widow upon whom in an espe-
cial manner falls the abuse and hatred of the
community as the greatest criminal upon whom
Heaven's judgment has been pronounced.

In ancient times when the code of Mann
was yet in the dark future and when the
priesthood had not yet mutilated the original
reading of a Vedic text concerning widows, a
custom of re-marriage was in existence.

Widowhood. 71

Its history may be briefly stated : The rite
of child-marriage left many a girl a widow
before she knew what marriage was, and her
husband having died sonless had no right to
enter into heaven and enjoy immortality, for
u the father throws his debts on the son and
obtains immortality if he sees the face of a

living son. It is declared in the Vedas,

endless are the worlds of those who have
sons ; there is no place for the man who is
destitute of male offspring." The greatest
curse that could be pronounced on enemies,
was "may our enemies be destitute of off-
spring. "

In order that these young husbands might
attain the abodes of the blessed, the ancient
sages invented the custom of " appointment M
by which as among the Jews, the Hindu Ar-
yans raised up seed for the deceased husband.
The husband's brother, cousin or other kins-
man successively was " appointed " and duly
authorized to raise up offspring to the dead.
The desired issue having been obtained any

72 The High-Caste Hindu Woman.

intercourse bet-ween the appointed persons was
thenceforth considered illegal and sinful.

The woman still remained the widow of
her deceased husband, and her children by
the appointment were considered his heirs.
Later on, this custom of " appointment " was
gradually discouraged in spite of the Vedic

text already quoted " there is no place for the

man who is destitute of male offspring."

The duties of a widow are thus described
in the code of Manu :

" At her pleasure let her emaciate her body by living
on pure flowers, roots and fruit ; but she must never even
mention the name of another man after her husband has
died"

" Until death let her be patient of hardships, self-con-
trolled, and chaste, and strive to fulfil that most excellent
duty which is prescribed for wives who have one husband
only.* 7 Manu v , 157, 158.

" . . . . Nor is a second husband anywhere prescribed
for virtuous women.** Manu v., 162.

" A. virtuous wife who after the death of her husband
constantly remains chaste, reaches heaven, . . . " Manu
v., 16a

" In reward of such conduct, a female who controls her
thoughts, speech, and actions, gains in this life highest

Widowhood. 73

renown, and in the next world a place near her hus-
band."* Manu v., 166.

The following are the rules for a widower :

"A twice-born man, versed in the sacred law, shall
burn a wife of equal caste who conducts herself thus
and dies before him, with the sacred fires used for the
Agnihotra, and with the sacrificial implements."

" Having thus at the funeral, given the sacred fires to
his wife who dies before him, he may marry again, and
again kindle the (nuptial) fires."

" .... And having taken a wife, he must dwell in
his own house dunng the second period of his life.
Manu v. t 167-169.

The self-immolation of widows on their de-
ceased husband's pyre was evidently a cus-
tom invented by the priesthood after the code
of Manu was compiled. The laws taught
in the schools of Apastamba, Asvalayana and,
others older than Manu do not mention it,

*It should be borne in mind that according to the
popular belief there is no other heaven to a woman
than the seat or mansion of her husband, where she
shares the heavenly bliss with him in the next world if
she be faithful to him in thought, word and deed. The
only place where she can be independent of him is in
hell.

74 The High-Caste Hindu Woman.

neither does the code of Mantu The code of
Vishnu which is comparatively recent, says,
that a woman " after the death of her husband
should eithei; lead a virtuous life or ascend
the funeral pile of her husband." Vishnu
xxv., 2.

It is very difficult to ascertain the motives of
those who invented the terrible custom of the
so-called Suttee, which was regarded as a sub-
limely meritorious act As Manu the greatest
authority next to the Vedas did not sanction
this sacrifice, the priests saw the necessity of
producing some text which would overcome
the natural fears of the widow as well as
silence the critic who should refuse to allow
such a horrid rite without strong authority.
So the priests said there was a text in the
Rig-veda which according to their own ren-
dering reads thus :

"Om! let these women, not to be widowed, good wives,
adorned with collyrium, holding clarified butter, consign
themselves to the fire ! Immortal, not childless, not hus-
bandless, well adorned with gems, let them pass into the
fire whose original element is water.'*

Widowhood. 75

Here was an authority greater than that of
Manu or of any other law giver, which could
not be disobeyed. The priests and their allies,
pictured heaven in the most beautiful colors
and described various enjoyments so vividly
that the poor widow became madly impatient
to get to the blessed place in company with
her departed husband. Not only was the wo-
man assured of her getting into heaven by
this sublime act, but also that by this great
sacrifice she would secure salvation to herself
and husband, and to their families to the.
seventh generation. Be they ever so sinful,
they would surely attain the highest bliss in
heaven, and prosperity on earth. Who would
not sacrifice herself if she were sure of such a
result to herself and her loved ones? Besides
this, she was conscious of the miseries and
degradation to which she w6uld be subjected
now that she had survived her husband. The
momentary agony of suffocation in the flames
was nothing compared to her lot as a widow.
She gladly consented and voluntarily offered

76 The High- Caste Hindu Woman.

herself to please the gods and men. The
rite of Suttee is thus described :

"The "widow bathed, put on new and bright garments,
and, holding Kusha grass in her left hand, sipped water
from her right palm, scattered some Tila grains, and then,
looking eastward, quietly said, c Om ' on this day I, such
and such a one, of such a family, die in the fire, that I
may meet Arundhati, and reside in Svarga ; that the years
of my sojourn there may be as many as the hairs upon
my husband, many scores multiplied, that I may enjoy
with "hi-m the facilities of heaven, and bless my maternal
and paternal ancestors, and those of my lord's line ; that
praised by Apsarasas, I may go far through the fourteen
regions of Indra , that pardon may be given to my lord's
sins whether he have ever killed a Brahman, broken the
laws of gratitude and truth, or slain his friend. Now I do
ascend this funeral pile of my husband, and I call upon
you, guardians of the eight regions of the world, of stm,
moon, air, of the fire, the ether, the earth and the water,
and my own soul. Yama, King of Death, and you, Day,
Night and Twilight, witness that I die for my beloved, by
his side upon his funeral pile.' Is it wonderful tbatt the
passage of the Sati to her couch of flame was Hke> a,
public festival, that the sick and sorrowful prayed her to
touch them with her little, fearless, conquering fraud,
that criminals were let loose if she looked upon tfrem,
that the horse which carried her was never used agaJfc
for earthly service?" (. Arnold.) ,'',','

The act was supposed to be altogetJw #

Widowhood. 77

voluntary one, and no doubt it was so in
many cases. Some died for the love stronger
than death which they cherished for their
husbands. Some died not because they had
been happy in this World, but because they
believed with all the heart that they should
be made happy hereafter. Some to obtain
great renown, for tombstones and monuments
were erected to those who thus died, and
afterwards the names were inscribed on the
long list of family gods ; others again, to
escape the thousand temptations, and sins and
miseries which they knew would fall to their
lot as widows. Those who from pure ambi-
tion or from momentary impulse, declared their
intentions thus to die, very often shrank from
the fearful altar ; no sooner did they feel the
heat of the flames than they tried to leap
down and escape the terrible fate ; but it was
too late. They had taken the solemn oath
which must never be broken, priests and
other men were at hand to force them to re-
mount the pyre. In Bengal, where this cus-

78 The High-Caste Hindu Woman.

torn was most in practice, countless, fearful
tragedies of this description occurred even after
British rule was long established there, Chris-
tian missionaries petitioned the government to
abolish this inhuman custom, but they were
told that the social and religious customs of
the people constituted no part of the business
of the government, and that their rule in In-
dia might be endangered by such interference."
The custom went on unmolested until the
first quarter of the present century, when a
man from among the Hindus, Raja Ram
Mohun Roy, set his face against it, and de-
clared that it was not sanctioned by the Veda
as the priests claimed. He wrote many books
on this subject, showing the wickedness of the
act, and with the noble co-operation of a few
friends, he succeeded at last in getting the
government to abolish it. Lord William Ben*
thick, when Governor-general of India, had
the moral courage to enact the famous law of
1829, prohibiting the Suttee rite within British
domains, and holding as criminals, subject to

Widowhood. 79

capital punishment, those who countenanced
it. But it was not until 1844 that ^ e ^ aw
had any effect upon orthodox Hindu minds.

That the text quoted from the Veda was
mistranslated, and a part of it forged, could
have been easily shown had all Brahmans
known the meaning of the Veda. The Ve-
dic language is the oldest form of Sanskrit,
and greatly differs from the later form. Many
know the Vedas by heart and repeat them
without a mistake, but few indeed, are those
that know the meaning* of the texts they re-
peat "The Rig-veda," says Max Muller,
"so far from enforcing the burning of wi-
dows, shows clearly that this custom was not
sanctioned during the earliest period of Indian
r hitfto*7* According to the hymns of the Rig-
veto* md the Vedic ceremonial contained in
the Grihya-sutras, the wife accompanies the
corpse of her husband to the funeral pile, but
she is there addressed with a verse taken from
the Rig-veda, and ordered to leave her hus-
band and to return to the world of the living."

8o The High- Caste Hindu Woman.

"'Rise, woman,' it is said, 'come to the
world of life, thou sleepest nigh unto him
whose life is gone. Come to us. Thou hast
thus fulfilled the duties of a wife to the hus-
band, who once took thy hand and made thee
a mother.' "

"This verse is preceded by the very verse
which the later Brahmans have falsified and
quoted in support of their cruel tenet The
reading of the verse is beyond all doubt, for
there is no various reading, in our sense of
the word, in the whole of Rig-veda. Besides,
we have the commentaries and the ceremon-
ials, and nowhere is there any difference to

%

the text or its meaning. It is addressed to
the other women who are present at the fune-
ral, and who have to pour oil and butter on
the pile .

u< May these women who are not widows,
but have good husbands, draw near with oil
and butter. These who are mothers may go
up first to the altar, without tears, wi
sorrow, but decked with fine jewels, ' n

Widowhood. 8 1

It was by falsifying a single syllable that
the unscrupulous priests managed to change
entirely the meaning of the whole verse.
Those who know the Sanskrit characters can
easily understand that the falsification very
likely originated in the carelessness of the
transcriber or copyist, but for all that the
priests who permitted the error are not ex-
cusable in the least. Instead of comparing the
verse with its context, they translated it as
their fancy dictated and thus under the pre-
text of religion they have been the cause of
destroying countless lives for more than two
thousand years.

Now that the Suttee-rite, partly by the will
of the people and partly by the law of the
empire, is prohibited, many good people feel
easy i& their minds, thinking that the Hindu
widow has been delivered from the hand of
Her terrible fate; but little do they realize
itfcte iWe state of affairs !

Throughout I^dia, except in the Northwest-
era Provinces, women are put to the severest
6

82 The High-Caste Hindu Woman.

trial imaginable after the husband* s death.
The manner in which they are brought up
and treated from their earliest childhood com-
pels them to be slaves to their own petty
little interests, to be passionate lovers of orna-
ments and of self-adornment, but no sooner
does the husband die than they are deprived
of every gold and silver ornament, of the
bright-colored garments, and of all the things
they love to have about or on their persons.
The cruelty of social customs does not stop
here. Among the Brahmans of Deccan the
heads of all widows must be shaved regularly
every fortnight Some of the lower castes,
too, have adopted this custom of shaving
widows' heads, and have much pride in imi-
tating their high-caste brethren. * What woman
is there who does not love the wealth of soft
and glossy hair with which nature has so ,
generously decorated her head? A Hindu
woman thinks it worse than death to lose he^:
beautiful "hair. Girls of fourteen and fifteen/
who hardly know the reason why they are

Widowhood. 83

so cruelly deprived of everything they like,
are often seen wearing sad countenances, their
eyes swollen from shedding hitter tears. They
are glad to find a dark corner where they
may hide their faces as if they had done
something shameful and criminal, "The widow
must wear, a single coarse garment, white, red
or brown. She must eat only one meal dur-
ing the twentjfcfour hours of a day. She
must never take part in family feasts and
jubilees, with others. She must not show
herself to people on auspicious occasions. A
man or woman thinks it unlucky to behold a
widow's face before seeing any other object
in the morning, A num will postpone his
journey if his path happens to be crossed by
a widow at the time of his departure,

A widow is called an "inauspicious" thing..
The name "rand," by which she is generally
known, is the same that is borne by a Natttch
girl or a harlot. The relatives and neighbors
of the young *> widow's husband are always
ready to call her bad names, and to address

84 The High-Caste Hindu Woman.

her in abusive language at every opportunity.

There is scarcely a day of her life on which

*
'she is not cursed by these people as th^ cause

of their beloved friend* s death. The mother-
in-law gives vent to her grief by using such
language as, when once heard, burns into a
human heart In short, the young widow's
life is rendered intolerable in every possible
way. There may be exceptions to this rule,
but, unhappily, they are not many. In addi-
tion to all this, the young widow is always
looked upon with suspicion, and closely guarded
as if she were a prisoner, for fear she may at
any time bring disgrace upon the family by
committing some improper act. The purpose
of disfiguring her by shaving her head, by not
allowing her to put ornaments or bright, bew-
tiful garments on her person, is to render her,
less attractive to a man's eye. Not allowing
her to eat more than once a day, and compel-'
ling her to abstain from food altogether ott
sacred days, is a part of the discipline by
which to mortify her youthful nature and $

Widowhood. 85

sire. She is closely confined to the house,

forbidden even to associate with her female

friends as often as she wishes ; no man except

her father, brother, uncles and her aunt-cou-
sins (who are regarded as brothers) are allowed
to see or speak with her. Her life then, desti-
tute as it is of the least literary knowledge,
void of all hope, empty of every pleasure and
social advantage, becomes intolerable, a curse
to herself and to society at large. She has
but few persons to sympathize with her. Her
own parents, with whom she lives in case her
husband has no relatives, or if his relatives
are unable to take care of her, do, of course,
sympathize with her, but custom and religious
faith have a stronger hold upon them than
parental love. They, too, regard their daugh-
ter with concern, lest she bring disgrace upon
their family.

It is not an uncommon thing for a young
widow without occupation that may satisfy
mind and heart, and unable longer to endure
the slights and suspicions to which she is per-

86 The Higfb-Caste Hindu Woman.

petually subjected, to escape from her prison-
home. But when she gets away from it,
where shall she go? No respectable family,
even of a lower caste, will have her for a
servant She is completely ignorant of any
art by which she may make an honest living.
She has nothing but the single garment
which she wears on her person. Starvation
and death stare her in the face ; no ray
of hope penetrates her densely-darkened mind.
What can she do? The only alternative be-
fore her is either to commit suicide or, worse
still, accept a life of infamy and shame. Oh,
cruel, cruel is the custom that drives thou-
sands of young widows to such a fate. Here
is a prayer by a woman doomed to life-long
misery, which will describe her own and her
sisters* feelings better than any words of
mine. It was written by a pupil of a British
Zenana missionary, one of the few Hindu wo-
men who can read and write, and one who has
tasted the bitter sorrows and degradation, $f
Hindu widowhood from her childhood,

Widowhood. 87

"Oh Lord, hear my prayer! No one has turned an eye
on the oppression that we poor women suffer, though with
weeping, and crying and desire, we have turned to all
sides, hoping that some one would save us. No one has
lifted up his eyelids to look upon us, nor inquire into
our case. We have searched above and below, but Thou
art the only One who wilt hear our complaint, Thou
knowest our impotence, our degradation, our dishonor.

"0 Lord, inquire into our case. For ages dark igno-
rance has brooded over our minds and spirits ; like a cloud
of dust it rises and wraps us round, and we are like pris-
oners in an old and mouldering house, choked and bur-
ied in the dust of custom, and we have no strength to
go out Bruised and beaten, we are like the dry husks
of the sugar-cane when the sweet f juice has been ex-
tracted. All-knowing God, hear our prayer ! forgive our
sins and give us power of escape, that we may see some-
thing of Thy world. O Father, when shall we be set
free from this jail ? For what sin have we been born to
live in this prison ? From Thy throne of judgment jus-
tice flows, but it does not reach us ; in this, our life-long
misery, only injustice comes near us.

"Thou hearer of prayer, if we have sinned against
Thee, forgive, but we are too ignorant to know what sin
is. Must the punishment of sin fall on those who are
too ignorant to know what it is> O great Lord, our
name is written with drunkards, with lunatics, with im-
beciles, with the very animals ; as they are not responsi-
ble, we are not. Criminals, confined in the jails for life,
are happier than we, for they know something of Thy
world. They were not born in prison, but we have not

88 The Hig/i- Caste Hindu Woman.

for one day, no, not even in our dreams, seen Thy world ;
to us it is nothing but a name ; and not having seen the
world, we cannot know Thee, its maker. Those who have
seen Thy works may learn to understand Thee, but for
us, who are shut in, it is not possible to learn to know
Thee. We see only the four walls of the house. Shall
we call them the world, or India? We have been born
in this jail, we have died here, and are dying.

"O Father of the world, hast Thou not created us?
Or has perchance, some other god made us? Dost Thou
care only for men ? Hast Thou no thought for us wo-
men ? Why hast Thou created us male and female? O
Almighty, hast Thou not power to make us other than
we are, that we too might have some share in the com-
forts of this life ? The cry of the oppressed is heard even
in the world. Then canst Thou look upon our victim
hosts, and shut Thy doors of justice? O God Almighty
and Unapproachable, think upon Thy mercy, which is
a vast sea, and remember us. O Lord, save us, for we
cannot bear our hard lot; many of us have killed our-
selves, and we are still killing ourselves. O God of
mercy, our prayer to Thee is this, that the curse may,
be removed from the women of India. Create in the
hearts of the men some sympathy, that our lives may no
longer be passed in vain longing, that saved by Thy
mercy, we may taste something of the joys of life."

A Hindu gentleman contributes ,an article
entitled "The Hindu Widow, " to Th& Nine-
teenth Century, I quote from this a$ te$i> '

WidowJwod. 89

mony from the other sex, of the truthfulness
of my statement, lest I should appear to ex-
aggerate the miserable condition to which my
sister- widows are doomed for life :

" The widow who has no parents has to pass her whole
life under the roof of her father-in-law, and then she*
knows no comfort whatever. She has to meet from her
late husband's relations only unkind looks and unjust re-
proaches. She has to work like a slave, and for the
reward of all her drudgery she only receives hatred and
abhorrence from her mother-in-law and sisters-in-law. If
there is any disorder in the domestic arrangements of the
family the widow is blamed and cursed for it. Among
Hindus, women cannot inherit any paternal property, and
if a widow is left any property by her husband she can-
not call it her own. All her wealth belongs to her son,
if she has any, and if she has nobody to inherit it she
is made to adopt an heir, and give him all her property
directly he comes of age, and herself live on a bare allow-
ance granted by him. $ven death cannot save a widow
from indignities. For when a wife dies she is burnt in
the clothes she had on, but a widow's corpse is covered
with a coarse white cloth, and there is little ceremony at
her funeral

"'The English have abolished Sati (Suttee), but alas!
neither the English nor the angels know what goes on
in our houses, and the Hindus not only do not care, but
think it good I* Such were the words of a widow;
and well m%ht she exclaim, that ' neither tiie English

go The High-Caste Hindu Woman.

nor the angels know, and that the Hindus not only don't
care, but think it good ; ' for Hindu as I am, I can vouch
for her statement that very few Hindus have a fair know-
ledge of the actual sufferings of the widows among them,
and fewer still care to know the evils and horrors of the
barbarous custom which victimizes their own sisters and
daughters in so ruthless a manner ; nay, on the contrary,
the majority of the orthodox Hindus consider the practice
to be good and salutary. Only the Hindu widows know
their own sufferings ; it is perfectly impossible for any
other mortal, or even 'the angels,' (as the widow says),
to realize them. One can easily imagine how hard the
widow's lot must be .... when to the continuous
course of fastings, self-inflictions and humiliations is added
the galling ill-treatment which she receives from her own
relations and friends. To a Hindu widow death is a
thousand times more welcome than her miserable exis-
tence. It is no doubt this feeling that drove in former
times many widows to immolate themselves on the funeral
pyres of their dead husbands " DEVENDIRA N, DAS, Nine-
teenth Century, September, 1886.

There is a class of reformers who think that
they will meet all the wants of widows by es*
tablishing the re-marriage system. This $ys^
tern should certainly be introduced for tfye
benefit of the infant widows who wish to
marry on coming to age ; but at the same
time it should be remembered that this alptte

Widowhood. 91

is incapable and insufficient to meet their
wants.

In the first place, widow-marriage among
the high-caste people will not for a long time
become an approved custom. The old idea
is too deeply rooted in the heart of society
to be soon removed. Secondly, there are not
many men who will boldly come forward and
marry widows, even if the widows wish it.
It is one thing to talk about doing things
contrary to the approved custom, but to prac-
tice is quite another matter. It is now about
fifty years since the movement called widow-*
marriage among the high-caste Hindus was
started, but those who have practiced it are
but few. I have known men of great learn-
ing and high reputation who took oaths to
the effect that if they were to become widow-
ers and wished to marry again they would
marry widows. But no sooner had their first
wives died than they forgot all about the
oaths and married pretty little maidens. So-
ciety threatens them with excommunication,

92 The High- Caste Hindu Woman.

their friends and relatives entreat them with
tears in their eyes, others offer money and
maids if they will consent to give up the idea
of marrying a widow* Can flesh and blood
resist these temptations? If some men wish
to be true to their convictions, they must be
prepared to suffer perpetual martyrdom. After
marrying a widow they are sure to be cut
off from all connection with society and friends,
and even with their nearest relatives. In such
a case no faithful Hindu would ever give
them assistance if they were to fall in distress
or become unable to earn their daily bread ;
they will be ridiculed by, and hated of all
men. How many people are there in the
world who would make this tremendous sacri-
fice on the altar of conscience? The persecu-
tion to be endured by people who transgress
established customs is so great that life be-
comes a burden. A few years ago a high-
caste man in Cutch, (Northwestern India,) ven-
tured to marry a widow, but to endure the
persecution which ensued, was beyond his

Widowhood. 93

power, and the wretched fellow was soon after
found dead, having committed suicide.

Re-marriage, therefore, is not available, nor
would it be at all times desirable, as a miti-
gation of the sufferer's lot So the poor, help-
less high-caste widow with the one chance
of ending her miseries in the Suttee rite
taken away from her, remains as in ages past
with none to help her.

94 The High- Caste Hindu Woman.

CHAPTER VI.

HOW THE CONDITION OF WOMEN TEI^LS
UPON SOCIETY.

THOSE; who have done their best to keep
women in a state of complete dependence
and ignorance, vehemently deny that this has
anything to do with the present degradation of
the Hindu nation. I pass over the hundreds
of nonsenses which are brought forward as the
strongest reasons for keeping women in igno-
rance and dependence. They have already
been forced out into the broad day-light of
a generous civilization, and have been put to
the fiery proof of science and found wanting.
Above all, the noble example o/ thousands of
women in many countries have burned the

Condition of Women upon Society. 95

so-called reasons to ashes. But their ghosts
are still hovering over the land of the Hindus
and are frightening the timid and the igno-
rant to death. Let us hope that in God's
good time, all these devils shall be forever
cast out of India's body ; meanwhile it is our
duty to take the matter into serious considera-
tion, and to put forth our best endeavors to
hasten the glad day for India's daughters, aye,
and for her sons also ; because in spite of the
proud assertions of our brethren that they
have not suffered from the degradation of
women, their own condition betrays but too
plainly the contrary.

Since men and women are indissolubly uni-
ted by Providence as -members of the same
body of human society, each must suffer when
their fellow-members suffer, whether they will
confess it or not. In the animal as well as in
the vegetable kingdom, nature demands that
all living beings shall freely comply with its
cppiditions of growth or they cannot become
that which they were originally designed to

96 The High-Caste Hindu Woman.

be. Why should any exception to this law
be made for the purdah women? Closely
confined to the four walls of their house,
deprived throughout their lives of the op-
portunity to breathe healthy fresh air, or to
drink in the wholesome sunshine, they be-
come weaker and weaker from generation to
generation, their physical statures dwarfed,
their spirits crushed under the weight of social
prejudices and superstitions, and their ^minds
starved from absolute lack of literary food and
of opportunity to 9bserve the world. Thus
fettered, in ninety cases out of a hundred, at
the least calculation, they grow to be selfish
slaves to their petty individual interests, indif-
ferent to the welfare of their own immediate
neighbors, much more to their nation's well-
being. How could these imprisoned mothers
be expected to bring forth children better thap
themselves, for as the tree and soil are, so
shall the fruit be. Consequently we see all
around us in India a generation of men
deserving that exalted appellation.

Condition of Women upon Society. 97

The doctrine of " pre-natal influence' 1 can
nowhere be more satisfactorily proved than In
India. The mother's spirits being depressed,
and mind as well as body weakened by the
monotony and inactivity of her life, the un-
born child cannot escape the evil consequences.
The men of Hindustan do not when babes,
suck from the mother's breast, true patriotism,
and in their boyhood, the mother, poor woman,
is unable to develope that divine faculty in
them owing to her utter ignorance of the past
and present condition of her native land.
Fault-finding with neighbors, bitter feelings
towards tyrant relatives expressed in words
and actions, selfish interest in personal and
family affairs, these are the chief lessons that
children learn at the mother's knee, from
babyhood up to the seventh or eighth year of
age.

Again, how does it come to pass that each
succeeding generation grows weaker than the
one preceding it, if not because the progeni-
tors of each generation lack the mental and
7

98 The High-Caste Hindu Woman.

physical strength which children are destined
to inherit? The father may have been free
and healthy in mind, as well as in body, bnt
the mother was not ; she undoubtedly has
bequeathed the fatal legacy of weakness and
dullness to her children. The complete sub-
mission of women under the Hindu law has
in the lapse of milleniums of years converted
them into slavery-loving creatures. They are
glad to lean upon any one and be altogether
dependent, and thus it has come to pass that
their sons as a race, desire to depend upon
some other nation, and not upon themselves.
The seclusion, complete dependence and the
absolute ignorance forced upon the mothers of
our nation have been gradually and fatally
telling upon the mental and physical health of
the men, and in these last times they have
borne the poisonous fruit that will compel the
Hindu nation to die a miserable and pro-
longed death if a timely remedy is not taken
to them.
Moreover the Hindu woman's ignorance

Condition of Women upon Society. 99

prevents liberal-minded and progressive men
from making necessary and important changes
in the manners and habits of the household ;
bigoted women also prevent their husbands
and sons from such important enterprises as
crossing the ocean in the pursuit of useful
knowledge, or for purposes of trade.

To add to all the disabilities of the Hindu
mother in the discharge of her sacred mater-
nal duties, she is as a rule, wholly ignorant
of the commonest hygienic laws. It must be
remembered that she is herself a girl scarcely
out of her babyhood, when she becomes a
mother. At about fourteen, fifteen or sixteen
years of age she cannot bfc expected to know
all that is necessary in order to take good
care of her child. The first and second of the
children of this young mother usually die, and
if they survive, they are apt to grow up to be
weak and unhealthy adults. .Until they are
seven or eight years of age, the children of
the household are left to themselves without
any one to take care of them, and no in-

I oo The High- Caste Hindu Woman.

flueuce is exerted to mould their character at
this most interesting and important period of
life. Who but an intelligent and loving mo-
ther can do this all-important work for her
children at that age?

Having thus far endeavored to bring to the
notice of Western women the condition of a
class of their oriental sisters, I now desire to
direct their attention definitely to our chief
needs. After many years of careful observa-
tion and thought, I have come to the conclu-
sion that the chief needs of high-caste Hindu
women are : ist, Self-Reliance ; 2nd, Educa-
tion ; 3rd, Native Women Teachers.

71 Self-Reliance. The state of complete de-
pendence in which men are required by the
law-giver to keep women from birth to the
end of their lives makes it impossible for
them to *have self-reliance, without which
a human being becomes a pitiful parasite.
Women of the working classes are better off
than their sisters of high castes in India, for

Condition of Women upon Society. 101

in many cases they are obliged to depend upon
themselves, and an opportunity for cultivating
self-reliance is thus afforded them by which
they largely profit But high-caste women,
unless their families are actually destitute
of means to keep them, are shut up with-
in the four walls of their house. In after-
time, if they are left without a protector, i. e.
a male relative to support and care for them,
they literally do not know what to do with
themselves. They have been so cruelly crop-
ped in their early days that self-reliance and
energy are dead within them ; helpless victims
of indolence and false timidity they are easily
frightened out of their wits and have little or
jo strength to withstand the trials and diffi-
culties which must be encountered by a person
on her way toward progress. But it is idle
to hope that the condition of my country-
women will ever improve without individual
self-reliance ; therefore, is it not the duty of

our Western sisters to teach them how they

*
may become self-reliant?

102 The HigJi-Caste Hindu Woman.

IL Education. The lack of education among
the women of India can be fairly realized by
scanning the report of the Educational Com-
mission for 1883, and the census returns of
1880-81. Of the ninety-nine million seven
hundred thousand women and girls directly

under British rule, ninety-nine and one-half

#

millions are returned as unable to read and
write ; the remaining two hundred thousand
who are able either to read or write, cannot
all be reckoned as educated, for the school-
going period of a girl is generally between
seven and nine years of age ; within that
short time she acquires little more than ability
to read the second or the third vernacular
reading-book, and a little knowledge of arith^
metic which usually comprehends no more
than the four simple rules. It should be re-
membered that the two hundred thousand
women able to read or write are the u #/-
nmntz" of the government schools, mission
schools, private schools conducted by the in-
habitants of India independently, private socie-

Condition of Women upon Society. 103

ties and Zenana mission agencies all reckoned
together. It is surprising how even this small
number of women can have acquired the lim-
ited knowledge indicated, when we consider the
powers and principalities that are incessantly
fighting against female education in India.
Girls of nine and ten when recently out of
school and given in marriage are wholly cut
off from reading or writing, because it is a
shame for a young woman or girl to hold a
paper or book in her hand, or to read in the
presence of others in her husband's house. It
is a popular belief among high-caste women
that their husbands will die if they should '
read or should hold a pen in their fingers.

The fear of becoming a widow overcomes their

^

hunger and thirst for knowledge. Moreover
the little wives can get but scanty time to
devote to self-culture ; any one fortunate
' enough to possess the desire and able to com-
,;marid the time is in constant fear of being
' $eea by her husband's relatives. Her employ-
canno long be kept secret where every

IO4 The High-Caste Hindu Woman.

one is on the lookout, and when discovered
she is ridiculed, laughed at and even com-
manded by the elders to leave off this non-
sense. Her literary pursuits are now at an
end unless the proceedings of the elders be
interfered with by her progressive husban^;
but alas, such husbands are extremely rare.
Our schools, too, are not very attractive to
children ; the teachers of primary schools,
(and it is to these schools that girls are usually
sent), are but nominally educated, and do not
know how to make the lessons interesting for
children, Consequently a great many of the
girls who have been educated up to the second
or third standard (grade) in these primary
schools make it their business quickly to for-
get their lessons as soon as they find an
opportunity. Shut in from the world and
destitute of the ability to engage in newspaper
and useful book-reading, they have little or
no knowledge of common things around them,
and of the most important events that are
daily occurring in their own or foreign lands.

Condition of Women upon Society. 105

Ignorant, unpatriotic, selfish and uncultivated,
they drag the men down with them into the
dark abyss where they dwell together without
hope, without ambition to be something or to
do something in the world.

///. Native Women Teachers. American and
English women as Zenana missionaries are
doing all they can to elevate and enlighten
India's daughters. These good people deserve
respect 1 and praise from all, and the heart-felt
thanks of those for whose elevation they toil,
but the disabilities of an unfriendly climate,
and of an unknown tongue make it exceed-
ingly difficult for them to enter upon their
work for some time after reaching India ; and
then, "what are these among so many?"
They are literally lost among the nearly
one hundred millions of women under British
rule to whom must be added several millions
more under Hindu and Mahommedan rule.
In America and in England we hear encour-
aging reports from mission fields, which state
that a few thousand Hindu and Mahommedan

io6 The High-Caste Hindu Woman,

women and girls are being instructed in
schools or in their own homes, but these seem
as nothing, compared to the vast multitude
of the female population of Hindustan. In
a country where castes and the seclusion of
women are regarded as essential tenets of the
national creed, we can scarcely hope for a
general spread of useful knowledge among
women, through either men of their own race
or through foreign women. All experience in
the past history of mankind has shown that
efforts for the elevation of a nation must come
from within and work outward to be effectual.
The one thing needful, therefore, for the
general diffusion of education among women
in India is a body of persons from among
themselves who shall make it their life-work
to teach by precept and example their fellow-
countrywomen*

The Appeal. 107

CHAPTER VII.
THE APPEAR.

IN the preceding chapters I have tried to
tell my readers briefly the sad story of my coun-
trywomen, and also to bring to their notice
what are our chief needs. We, the women of
India, are hungering and thirsting for know-
ledge ; only education under God's grace, can
give us the needful strength to rise up from
our degraded condition.

Our most pressing want and one which must
immediately be met is women-teachers of our
own nationality. How can these women-teach*-
ers be supplied? I have long been thinking
over this matter and now I am prepared to
give answer.

io8 The High- Caste Hindu Woman.

Among the inhabitants of India, the high-
caste people rank as the most intelligent ;
they have been a refined and cultivated race
for more than two thousand years. The
women of these castes have been and still are
kept in ignorance, yet they have inherited
from their fathers to a certain degree, quick-
ness of perception and intelligence* . A little
care and judicious education bestowed upon
them will make many of them competent
teachers and able workers. That this state-
ment is not altogether visionary on my part,
has been proven by the gratifying results of
careful training in the person of Chandramukhi
Bose, M. A., now lady principal of Bethune
School, Calcutta, Kadambini B. Ganguli, B, A.,
M. B., and also others who have successfully
passed their examinations in the Calcutta Uni-
versity, The professors of the Woman's Medi-
cal College of Pennsylvania will bear testimony
to the ability of the late Dr. Anandibai Joshee*
Had her life been spared a little longer she
would have shown to the world that the Hin~

The Appeal. 109

du woman, in spite of all drawbacks equals
any woman of civilized countries.

Again, according to the census of 1881
there were in India twenty million nine hun-
dred and thirty thousand six hundred and
twenty-six widows, of all ages and castes.
Among these were six hundred and sixty-nine
thousand one hundred widows under nine-
teen years of age, viz. :

Under nine years of age 78,97$

From 10 to 14 years of age. . . . 207,388
From 15 to 19 years of age. . . . 382,736

669,100

Girls of nine and ten, or thirteen years of
age, whose betrothed husbands are dead, are
virgin widows, and these, if of high-caste
families, must remain single throughout life.
Now if there were suitable educational institu-
tions where young widows who might wish to
be independent of their relatives and make an
honest living for themselves, might go to be
instructed in useful handiwork, and educated
for teachers, many horrid occurrences might

1 10 Tfie High-Caste Hindu Woman.

be prevented, and at the same time these wi-
dows would prove a welcome blessing to their
countrywomen. But alas ! institutions have
not been founded anywhere in India where
high-caste widows can receive shelter and edu-
cation.

In the year 1866, an eminent English lady,
Miss Mary Carpenter, made a short tour iu
India, with a view to find some way by which
women's condition in that country might be
improved. She at once discovered that the
chief means by which the desired end might
be accomplished was by furnishing women-
teachers for the Hindu zenanas. She sug-
gested that the British government should
establish normal schools for training women-
teachers and that scholarships should be awarded
to girls in order to prolong their school-going
period, and to assist indigent women, who
would otherwise be unable to pursue their stu-
dies. In response to Miss Carpenter's appeal
upon her return to England, the British gov-
ernment founded several schools for women in

The Appeal. in

India, and in honor of this good lady a few
" Mary Carpenter scholarships " were endowed
by benevolent persons. These schools which
I have personally inspected, were opened to
women of every caste, and while they have
undoubtedly been of use, they have not real-*
ized the hopes of their founder, partly because
of the impossibility of keeping caste-rules in
them, and partly on account of the inadequacy
of the arrangements for attendance. When a
high-caste widow takes it upon herself to go
to school, she cannot hope, except in cases
which are extremely rare, to receive any kind
of help from her own relatives ; so she is
thrown out a penniless, helpless, forlorn crea-
ture to face the world alone. If then she is
so fortunate as to tfe sheltered in a normal
school and is awarded a studentship she finds
this scarcely enough to keep her from star-
vation, its money value being from twelve
to twenty or twenty-five dollars per year ; but
she cannot get even this scanty support from
the educational department, unless she pass

1 1 2 The High- Caste Hindu Woman.

a certain examination. How can an illiterate
widow hope to pass that examination ?

Besides these government normal schools for
women, of which at the present time, there
are probably $ix throughout all India, there
"are a few foreign* mission schools where a
woman may find shelter and instruction,
but if she be an orthodox Hindu by faith,
and of a respectable family, she will on no
account take refuge with people of a strange
religion and country. There are exceptions of
course to this statement, but as a rule, a high-
caste Hindu woman prefers death to this .alter-
native. She knows that if she goes to live
with missionaries she must lose caste, and that
she must study their Bible, and perhaps in the
end be induced to forsake her ancestral faith
and embrace a strange one. No woman of
any religion in which she firmly believes whe-
ther it appear to others to be true or false,
would violate her conscience simply for food
and shelter. That the fear of being tempted
to abjure one's religion for the sake of worldly

The AppeaC. 113

gain should prevent many an excellent Hindu
widow from going to foreign missionary schools
is undoubted. She honestly believes that if her
life is rendered intolerable by domestic misery
she can drown herself in some sacred river by
which deed she will not only escape the
wretchedness of this life, but her past sins
will be forgiven, and a place in heaven se-
cured, but to forsake her ancestral religion
under any circumstances would doom her to
eternal perdition in the world to come.

Is there then no way of helping and educat-
ing these high-caste widows? Can none of
these obstacles be removed from her path?
Yes ! they can be removed, and the course
which in my judgment can most advantageous-
ly be taken in order to succor the widows and
the women of India in general, may be stated
as follows :

I. Houses should be opened for the young
and high-caste child-widows where they can>
take shelter without the fear of losing their

caste, or of being disturbed in their religious
8

1 1 4 The High- Caste Hindu Woman.

belief and where they may have entire free-
dom of action as relates to caste-rules, such as
cooking of food, etc,, provided they do not
violate the rules or disturb the peace of the
house wherein they have taken up their abode.

II. In order to help them make an honor-
able and independent living, they should be
taught in these houses to be teachers, govern-
esses, nurses and housekeepers, and should be-
come skilled in other forms of hand-work, ac-
cording to their taste and capacity.

III. These houses should be under the
superintendence and management of influential
Hindu ladies and gentlemen, who should be
pledged to make each house a happy home
and an instructive institution for those who
seek its opportunities.

IV. The services of well-qualified American
ladies as assistants and teachers should be se-
cured in order to afford the occupants of the
houses the combined advantage of Eastern and
Western civilization and education.

V. Libraries containing the best books on

The Appeal* 115

history, science, art, religions and other de-
partments of literature should be established
in these houses for the benefit of their inmates
and of other women in their vicinity who may
wish to read. Lectureships should also be
established in the libraries, and the lecturers
should be engaged with the distinct under-
standing that they do not speak irreverently of
any religion or sacred custom while lecturing
in that house or library ; the lecturers should
embrace in their topics, hygiene, geography,
elementary science, foreign travel, etc., and
the lectures should be designed primarily to
open the eyes and ears of those who long have
dwelt in the prison-house of ignorance, know-
ing literally nothing of God's beautiful world.

It is my intention after my return home
(which I trust may be within a year from
this time) to establish at least one such insti-
tution. I am fully aware of the great respon-
sibility the trial and it may be the failure
will involve; but as some one must make a

1 1 6 The High- Caste Hindu Woman.

beginning, I am resolved to try, trusting that
God, who knows the need of my country-
women, will raise up able workers to forward
this cause, whether I succeed in it or not
The great "majority of my country-people be-
ing most bitterly opposed to the education of
women, there is little hope of my getting from
them either good words or pecuniary aid.

For the present it is useless to reason with
high-caste Hindu gentlemen concerning this
matter ; they only ridicule the proposal or
silently ignore it. There are some among
them who would certainly approve and would
help to carry the idea into effect, but they
must first realize its advantages and see its
good results. One must have the power of

performing miracles to induce this class of

%

men to receive the gospel of society's well-
being through the elevation of woman. Such*
a miracle I have faith to believe will be per-
formed in India before the end of the next
ten years, and if this be true, the enterprise
will prove self-supporting after that period

The Appeal. 117

with only native aid. There is even now a
handful of Hindus entertaining progressive
ideas who are doing all they can to reform the
religious and social customs of Hindustan, and
who will, without doubt, support my work
from the beginning ; but they have little with
which to forward the cause except their per-
sonal services.

An institution of the kind indicated, where
the pupils must be supported and the foreign
teachers liberally paid for their services, cannot
be founded and afterwards kept in a flourishing
condition without money. Therefore I invite
all good women and men of the United States
to give me their help liberally in whatever way
they may be able for a period of about ten
years; it is my solemn belief that it is the
most sacred duty of those who dwell in this
highly-favored land to bestow freely talents of
whatever kind they may possess* to help for-
ward this educational movement I venture
to make this appeal because I believe that
those who regard the preaching of the gospel

1 1 8 The High- Caste Hindu Woman.

of our Lord Jesus Christ to the heathen so
important as to spend in its accomplishment
millions of money and hundreds of valuable
lives will deem it of the first importance to
prepare the way for the spread of the gospel
by throwing open the locked doors of the In-
dian zenanas, which cannot be done safely
without giving suitable education to the wo-
men, whereby they will be able to bear the
dazzling light of the outer world and the
perilous blasts of social persecution.

Mothers and fathers, compare the condition
of your own sweet darlings at your happy fire-
sides with that of millions of little girls of a
corresponding age in India, who have already
'been sacrificed on the unholy altar of an in-
human social custom, and then ask yourselves
whether you can stop short of doing something
to rescue the little widows from the hands of
their tormentors. Millions of heart-rending
cries are daily rising from within the stony
walls of Indian zenanas; thousands of child-
widows are annually dying without a ray of

The Appeal. 1 1 9

hope to cheer their hearts, and other thou-
sands are daily being crushed under a fearful
weight of sin and shame, with no one to pre-
vent their ruin by providing for them a better
way.

Will you not, all of you who read this book/
think of these, my countrywomen, and rise,
moved by a common impulse, to free them
from life-long slavery and infernal misery? I
beg you, friends and benefactors, educators and
philanthropists, all who have any interest in
or compassion for your fellow-creatures, let the
cry of India's daughters, feeble though it be,
reach your ears and stir your hearts. In the
name of humanity, in the name of your sacred
responsibilities as workers in the cause of hu-'
manity, and, above all, in the most holy name
of God, I summon you, true women and men
of America, to borEoj^^mr help quickly, re-
gardless of natiggft caste